niiiiiirrtriig 


The  Circuit  Rider  on  Foot, 


OR, 


My  First  Year  in  the  Ministry. 


BV 


Rev.. GEORGE  H.  HOPKINS, 


ROCKFORD,  ILL  : 

A.    F.  JUDl)   &   CO  ,    PRINTERS   ANI>   KNUKAVKK? 

18'JO. 


DEDICATION. 

To  my  Christian  mother,  whose  prayers  are  ever  for  my  success  in 
my  chosen  fleld  of  labor,  is  this  volume  lovingly  dedicated 

BY  THE  AUTHOR. 


PRKKACK. 

Dear  reader,  this  is  my  first  effort  at  book-making.  I 
do  not  know  as  one's  experience  become  as  interesting  to 
others  as  to  self.  What  one  knows  for  himself  may  be  of 
more  worth  to  self  than  to  any  one  else.  Be  that  as  it 
may,there  maybe  great  lessons  drawn  from  other's  experi- 
ence. It  certainly  can  do  no  harm  to  tell  what  one 
has  known  for  himself  in  the  line  of  duty.  A  minister's 
life  is  sometimes  looked  upon  as  an  easy  life.  Some  even 
think  that  is  a  pleasureable  life,  with  little  care  and  plenty 
to  eat  and  wear.  If  there  is  any  pleasure  in  the  ministry 
it  is  not  in  the  fact  one  is  a  minister,  but  rather  in  the  fact 
that  the  duties  of  the  office  are  performed  to  the  best  of 
one's  ability.  If  there  is  a  state  of  ease  to  one  in 
the  work  it  is  the  ease  of  conscience  and  not  mortal  lazi- 
ness. A  preacher's  life  is  not  a  life  of  no  cost  and  all  pay. 
I  have  long  since  learned  that  there  is  more  imaginary 


pleasure  than  real  pleasure  in  all  human  things.  If  one 
thinks  it  is  better  to  be  a  minister  than  a  farmer,  or  a 
mechanic,  he  will  surely  find  that  one  place  is  no  easier 
than  another  in  this  world,  if  one  is  filling  the  station 
assigned  to  him.  Even  a  man  sitting  on  a  dry  goods  box 
in  front  of  a  store  "of  a  long  summer  day,"  is  a  man 
whose  life  is  the  most  burdensome  and  whose  task  if  done 
well  wearies  him  more  than  the  hard  labor  of  the  farm 
would.  He  always  seems  to  be  tired,  too.  There  is  but  a 
certain  amount  of  earthly  comfort  for  a  man  in  this  life. 
If  one  seeks  pleasure  in  idleness  he  finds  himself  sadly  dis- 
appointed in  his  pursuit.  If  he  seeks  it  in  labor,  he  is  hap- 
pier while  toiling,  although  he  thinks  that  ease  would  be 
a  greater  pleasure.  But  the  truth  is  that  God's  richest 
and  brightest  blessings  are  wrapped  up  in  hearty  service. 
So  the  ministry  is  not  the  exception  to  the  rule.  Its  great- 
est blessings  come  from  the  hardest  toil  and  the  severest 
strain. 

The  chosen  vessel  must  be  broken  that  the  streams 
may  flow.  The  smitten  rock  sent  forth  the  pure  and 
sparkling  water,  and  the  crucified  Redeemer  brought  life 
and  immortality  to  light.  Had  there  been  no  death  and 
burial  there  could  have  been  no  Resurrection  dawn.  So 
in  all  the  great  work  of  the  ministry  the  submission  to 
suffering  and  hardship  and  trial  is  the  power  that  opens 
the  gates  and  floods  the  world  with  the  glory  of  saving 
grace  and  matchless  love. 

If  a  man  thinks  the  minister  of  the  gospel  has  an  easy 
time  of  it  he  does  not  consider  the  nature  of  things  or  the 
nature  of  that  service  the  minister  is  called  to  perform. 


iii. 

He  does  not  read  well  the  gospel  story,  nor  does  he  dis- 
cover the  many  paralellisms  that  must  exist  between  a 
suffering  Christ  and  a  sacrificing  ministry.  The  work  of 
a  preacher  is  not  a  self-imposed  task,  but  with  all  of  his 
misgivings  he  cries  with  Paul  "  Woe  is  me,  if  I  preach  not 
the  gospel."  He  enters  the  work  as  a  servant  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  who  dare  not  disobey  except  he  forfeit  his 
peace  of  mind  and  rest  of  soul. 

His  service  must  not  depend  upon  what  others  say  or 
do,  for  while  he  is  ministering  to  a  faulty  people,  and  a 
fault-finding  people,  and  even  a  rebellious  people,  he  must 
do  the  bidding  of  the  Lord  whether  others  like  it  or  not. 
He  has  but  one  to  please  and  that  is  God. 

In  writing  this  book  I  have  tried  to  the  best  of  my 
ability  to  recall  all  of  the  incidents  of  interest  to  others 
Some  things  are  not  as  fully  described  as  they  might  have 
been.  It  would  take  too  long  to  tell  all,  and  then  the 
intention  of  the  author  in  writing  this  book  is  not  to 
enlarge  upon  or  follow  up  everything  to  the  last  limit,  but 
simply  to  give  a  good  and  fair  synopsis  of  a  minister's 
trials  and  triumphs  during  one  brief  year. 

However  it  may  appear  to  others,  it  is  to  the  author 
a  year  of  such  important  lessons  that  it  cannot  fail  to 
linger  in  memory  as  one  of  the  most  sacred  of  treasures. 
What  does  a  man  value  more  than  childhood's  happy 
hours  that  hang  upon  the  walls  of  memory  encased  in 
gold  never  to  be  taken  down?  Why  does  he  prize  those 
memories  ?  Because  they  are  the  days  of  the  beginnings 
of  things.  The  morning  dawn  of  every-day  life  and 
experience.  The  days  wherein  petty  trials  and  brimming 


joys  flitted  like  birds  on  wings.  We  cannot  forget  the 
beginnings.  So  to  the  minister  of  the  gospel  in  his  first 
year,  it  is  the  infancy  of  a  new  life,  and  it  must  write  itself 
upon  the  heart  in  letters  of  light,  there  to  stay.  It  is  a 
reality  beyond  any  and  every  question,  and  becomes  at 
once  the  rock-bed  of  all  future  efforts  and  the  alphabet  of 
a  science  that  grows  in  magnitude  as  years  goby.  It  is  the 
nucleus  around  which  all  subsequent  history  must  cluster, 
and  a  book  of  reference  to  which  one  oft  refers  in  times  of 
doubt  or  fear.  Such  to  the  author,  at  least,  has  been  the 
experience  of  that  first  year  in  the  ministry. 

If  it  can  be  a  help  to  others  on  the  sea  of  life,  the 
effort  will  well  pay  the  author.  Let  no  one  think  for  one 
moment  that  the  author  considers  this  narrative  of  facts 
anything  unparalelled  in  human  experience.  Thousands 
of  ministers,  living  to-day,  of  my  age,  no  doubt  have  ma- 
terial at  hand  that  would  be  more  marvelous  than  any- 
thing written  in  this  book.  Read  it,  please,  simply  as  the 
story  of  a  Methodist  minister's  experience  in  early  life  and 
during  a  first  year  in  that  noble  work ;  not  as  what  a 
man  did  simply,  or  endured,  but  as  the  result  of  a  Divine 
support  given  to  mortal  man. 

What  I  was  able  to  do  was  through  the  assistance  of 
the  Divine  Master.  I  was  nothing  but  a  man,  not  a 
superhuman,  but  a  human  being,  Some  expect  of  human 
beings  in  the  ministry  superhuman  work  and  superhuman 
perfection,  but  a  minister  is  not  an  angel  yet,  but  he  hopes 
to  be  some  day.  You  will  not  be  able  to  find  any  wings 
under  the  preacher's  coat.  Do  not  expect  too  much  of 
your  preacher.  Credit  him  with  humanity  and  treat  him 


V. 

as  such  in  love  for  the  sake  of  the  Master. 

So  with  these  few  words  I  must  leave  you  to  wade 
through  the  rest  of  the  book  as  best  you  can,  and  that 
you  will  not  find  in  wading  any  place  too  deep  for 
you  to  keep  your  chin  above  water,  or  at  least  your  eyes, 
is  the  wish  of  the  author. 

GEO.  H.  HOPKINS. 


MY  EARLY  LIFE. 

CHAPTER  I. 

I  was  born  in  the  state  of ;  so  to  begin  with  I 

am  a  "Yankee,"  and  the  son  of  a  "Yankee,"  and  the 
grand  son  of  a  "Yankee," — an  ol^-iashioned  "down- 
Easter;  "  for  my  great  grand  father  lived  in  the  state  of 
Rhode  Island  and  there  my  grandfather  was  born.  He 
grew  up  in  that  state  and  in  Connecticut,  and  lived  there 
in  the  days  of  the  "  old  blue  laws." 

My  mother  was  also  an  American,  but  how  far  back 
in  her  ancestry  the  American  blood  dated  I  can  not  say. 
She  was  brought  upas  a  Baptist  of  the  "hard-shell  "kind, 
and,  not  liking  that  order  of  ecclesiastics,  she  united  with 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  church,  when  she  was  converted. 
She  was  always  an  ardent  advocate  of  the  Methodist 
doctrines  and  a  firm  believer  in  God  and  the  Bible.  Her 
all  was  laid  upon  the  altar,  even  her  family.  She  always 
kept  her  little  ones  in  the  Sabbath  school.  She  began 
with  them  very  early  in  life  to  teach  them,  and  educate 
them  in  the  Christian  faith.  Her  children  were  not  left  to 


6 

grow  up  and  then  choose  for  themselves  whether  they 
would  go  to  Sabbath  school  or  not,  nor  to  be  invited  to 
attend  by  some  Sunday-school  missionary;  but  she  had 
her  children  in  the  Sunday  school  before  they  were  big 
enough  to  even  dress  their  feet.  I  cannot  remember  when 
I  first  went  to  Sabbath  school  and  to  church.  It  would 
be  impossible  ior  me  to  swear  positively  that  I  had  not 
always  been  there.  If  a  person  should  come  up  and  swear 
that  I  was  born  in  a  church,  I  should  be  about  ready  to 
concede  to  it,  for  my  earliest  recollections  are,  that  I  was 
there.  So,  for  all  practical  purposes,  I  have  always  been 
to  Sunday-school,  and  always  belonged  to  the  church, 
and  my  first  breath  must  have  been  a  prayer  my  mother 
taught  me. 

I  would  not  hav$  any  one  think  that  I  am  an  angel  or 
a  remarkable  saint,  for  I  fear  I  am  not  even  good  enough 
to  be  worthy  to  stand  among  the  angels  and  saints  in  the 
next  world.  I  am  only  a  weak,  sinning  mortal,  and  unless 
God  can  overlook  my  great  mistakes  and  follies  I  would 
stand  a  very  poor  chance  of  a  crown  and  a  robe  and  a 
home.  My  mother  did  her  duty  with  her  children,  but 
that  did  not  remove  my  sinful  tendencies,  nor  make  me  a 
clean  boy.  I  was  a  little  sinner,  wicked  and  rebellious, 
and  quarreling  with  my  brothers  and  sisters  and  play- 
mates, and  always  into  mischief;  and,  as  my  people  often 
told  me,  I  never  could  hold  still  for  one  minute  of  time.  I 
never  caught  but  one  contagious  disease,  and  that  one 
"the  measles."  The  only  reason  they  could  give  for  my 
escaping,  while  all  the  rest  of  the  family  were  sick  with 
everything  that  came  along,  was  simply  that  /  "could 


7 

never  hold  still  long  enough  to  catch  any  disease.11  So,  if 
that  is  the  true  cause  of  my  escapes,  I  think  I  am  more  to 
be  praised  than  to  be  blamed  for  'keeping  on  the  move." 
But  I  was  a  thoughtless,  pleasure-loving  and  pleasure- 
seeking  boy,  and  at  the  age  of  twelve  years  I  attended  a 
revival  meeting  in  my  native  town,  atid  there  I  gave  my 
heart  to  God.  They  invited  sinners  to  come  to  the  altar, 
and,  on  the  evening  in  question,  I  thought  that  invitation 
was  for  me,  and  while  they  were  singing  that  sweet  hymn 
of  invitation :  "  Come  Ye  Sinners  Poor  and  Needy,"  and 
the  chorus,  "  Turn  to  the  Lord  and  Seek  Salvation,  Sound 
the  Praise  of  His  Dear  Name,"  etc.,  I  arose  with  others 
and  went  to  the  altar,  and  there  I  found  peace  and  pardon, 
and  I  was  very  happy  in  the  new  experience.  I  went  home 
that  evening  a  new  boy.  The  next  day  I  lived  a  new  life, 
and  my  mother  and  my  brothers  and  sisters  could  note 
the  change,  as  well  as  I  could  experience  it  in  my  own 
heart. 

A  few  years  after  this  change,  either  three  or  four,  I 
attended  a  camp-meeting,  and  there  God  called  me  to  the 
work  of  the  ministry.  I  gave  myself  up  to  God  there  and 
then  to  be  anything  that  the  Lord  willed,  and  then  it  was 
that  God  sent  down  his  Holy  Spirit  and  filled  the  cup  to 
over-flowing.  I  was  the  happiest  being  on  the  old  camp 
ground.  And  years  after,  as  I  passed  the  old  camp  ground, 
I  thought  of  that  wonderful  blessing,  and  turned  aside  to 
find  the  spot  where  I  erected  my  Ebenezer.  I  found  the 
old  tree,  and  the  very  spot  where  heaven  and  earth  seemed 
to  meet,  and  where  angels  mingled  with  saints. 

I  left  the  camp  ground  at  the  close  of  that  meeting 


8 

with  a  heart  full  of  love  for  God  and  all  mankind.  The 
Lord  had  given  me  the  victory  over  the  flesh  and  the 
Devil,  and  over  Hell  as  well.  I  went  back  to  my  work  on 
the  farm  with  everything  about  me  praising  God,  and  I, 
myself,  doing  my  "level  best"  to  keep  up  with  creation 
in  thanksgiving  to  God.  It  was  the  "Joy  of  the  Lord," 
and  it  was  my  "strength."  I  had  to  drive  a  large  herd  of 
cattle  over  a  high  hill  every  morning  to  the  back  of  the 
farm  and  then  go  after  them  again  every  night,  and  this 
afforded  me  the  opportunity  to  commune  with  God.  One 
old  hickory  tree  was  one  of  my  secret  places  of  prayer, 
and  oft  I  held  the  sweetest  communion  with  my  God  of 
all  my  life  under  the  old  hickory  tree.  All  of  this  time  I 
was  saying  to  God,  "I  will  go  and  preach."  I  used  to 
look  with  a  great  amount  of  satisfaction  upon  the  calling 
of  God  to  this  high  place  of  service. 

The  Lord  blessed  me,  and  led  me,  and  I  was  not 
tempted  for  along  time.  All  this  time  I  said:  "I  will." 
By  and  by  the  Devil  tempted  me,  and  I  began  to  consider. 
That  is  the  point  of  danger  with  everyone.  When  we  be- 
gin to  consider  the  Devil's  proposition,  it  does  not  take 
long  for  the  Devil  to  get  us.  I  used  to  fish  a  great  deal 
when  a  boy,  and  some  times,  when  the  water  was  clear, 
I  could  see  the  fish.  I  noticed  sometimes  that  nice  large 
fish  would  go  swimming  by,  and  I  would  drop  my  hook 
in  front  of  them,  and  they  would  dodge  off  and  shoot  out 
into  deeper  \vater.  If  a  fish  would  not  stop  and  examine 
the  bait,  or  give  any  attention  to  it,  I  knew  I  could  not 
catch  that  fish.  But,  when  one  would  hang  around 
the  bait,  and  run  up  to  it,  I  was  quite  certain  to  catch 


9 

that  fish.   So  the  Devil  is  quite  certain  of  his  fish  when  the 
fish  stops  to  look  at  the  bait. 

The  Devil  finally  made  me  think  that  anything  else 
was  better  than  the  ministry.  I  said  :  "I  will  not,"  and, 
when  I  said  that,  I  was  going  away  from  God.  And  then 
the  pendulum  swung  from  "/  will"  to  "/  will  not"  and 
back  again,  and  so  on.  And  for  two  or  three  years,  I  was 
religious  and  then  irreligious,  pious  and  impious,  hot,  and 
then  cold.  Sometimes  a  Methodist  preacher  would  be  an 
honorable  title,  and  then  the  last  thing  to  ever  think  of 
being.  It  was  good,  bad  and  indifferent.  I  would  be  a 
school-teacher,  a  lawyer,  a  politician — anything  except  a 
Methodist  preacher.  And  thus  the  struggle  went  on, 
while  I  was  trying  to  chose  a  calling  for  life.  A  moment- 
ous question  that.  Many  a  man  has  turned  the  switch 
and  gone  the  wrong  road  at  that  point.  It  is  a  great 
thing  for  a  young  man  to  find  his  place, — the  one  that  he 
is  best  adapted  to  fill,  and  then  to  make  the  most  of  him- 
self in  his  place.  I  realize  now  the  danger  and  perils  at- 
tendant upon  the  wrong  choice  of  a  profession.  Not  that 
I  made  any  mistake  in  my  choice,  but  from  what  I  am, 
and  what  I  might  have  been,  I  am  able  to  see  how  many 
snares  were  set  for  my  feet.  But  thank  God  for  one  thing : 
there  are  no  snares  for  the  feet  of  those  who  walk  the 
road  to  duty. 

While  this  struggle  was  going  on,  I  had  even  made  a 
choice  against  my  convictions  of  duty,  but  in  keeping  with 
my  every  desire,  as  I  then  felt.  I  made  up  my  mind  that 
I  would  be  a  lawyer.  I  thought  that  I  would  be  ashamed 
to  be  called  a  Methodist  preacher,  but  not  to  be  called  a 


10 

lawyer.  So  into  a  law  office  I  went,  and  began  the  study 
of  the  law.  I  began  with  Blackstone's  Commentary.  I 
read  and  re-read,  and  I  got  more  knowledge  of  duty  be- 
tween the  lines,  than  I  did  of  common  law  on  the  lines. 

Every  day,  that  I  entered  the  law  office,  I  was  remind- 
of  my  duty  to  God,  as  I  crossed  the  threshold.  In  order 
to  keep  down  these  convictions,  I  would  not  attend  the 
prayer-meetings,  nor  the  class-meetings.  An  " I- will-not" 
never  gets  any  good  going  to  prayer-meetings  anyway. 
The  '•  I-will-nots"  never*  have  any  prayer-meetings  nor 
anything  else  very  religious.  I  was  simply  a  poor  kind  of 
a  Sunday  Christian.  I  went  to  church  on  Sunday,  when 
it  was  easier  to  go  than  stay  away. 

Not  because  I  did  not  fear  God,  did  I  get  so  icy  about 
religious  things;  but,  because  it  was  hard  to  force  a 
rebellion  against  conviction,  when  on  God's  territory. 
That  is  why  the  saint  meets  with  saints,  and  the  sinner 
meets  with  sinners.  That  is  just  why  the  dutiful  child  can 
look  up  into  God's  face  and  smile  at  the  eternal  judge, 
while  the  guilty  sinner  cries  for  the  "  Rocks  and  mountains 
to  hide"  him  from  the  face  of  the  mighty  God  of  heaven 
and  earth.  Duty  looks  up  into  God's  face,  while  unfaith- 
fulness hangs  its  head  in  shame  and  expects  to  get 
condemnation  from  the  start.  An  unfaithful  man  in 
religion  is  not  half  a  man  anywhere  you  may  put  him. 
He  is  a  dwarf  and  a  pigmy  beside  other  men.  He  can 
be  ever  so  great  otherwise,  but  if  untrue  to  conviction,  he 
must  ever  have  the  consciousness  with  him  that  being  un- 
true to  himself  he  is  even  so  to  all  who  estimate  him 
as  true.  Self-respect,  then,  must  be  at  the  very  founda- 


11 

tion  of  every  sincere  person,  for  no  person  can  respect 
himself  for  being  a  hypocrite. 

After  a  number  of  months  of  study  of  Common  Law, 
mixed  with  Divine  Law  and  deep  conviction,  I  was  nearer 
a  Methodist  preacher  than  when  I  began  the  law,  and  I 
knew  more  about  my  feelings  and  my  duty  at  the  close  of 
my  law  study,  than  I  did  about  Blackstone. 

Sometime  in  the  summer  of  that  year  I  thought  over 
my  course,  and  of  my  neglect  of  prayer  meetings,  and  I 
made  up  my  mind  that  I  would  go  for  once  to  the  meeting. 
I  went  and  tried  to  do  my  duty,  but,  of  course,  it  was 
formal,  as  long  as  I  said  "  /  will  not."  After  the  meeting, 
however,  the  preacher  came  to  me  and  said:  ;< You  will 
never  be  a  lawyer,  God  has  a  work  for  you  to  do." 
"Well,"  I  said,  "I  do  not  think  that  I  shall  leave  the  law 
office  until  I  have  finished  my  course."  It  did  not  do  me 
any  good  to  try  to  cover  up  my  own  convictions,  when 
God  would  tell  some  one  else  about  them.  I  did  not  know 
how  to  account  for  this  preacher  coming  to  me  and  say- 
ing what  he  did,  except  that  God  was  on  my  track,  and 
was  bound  to  have  me.  I  went  to  my  room  that  night 
deeply  moved.  I  went  to  the  prayer-meeting,  and  my 
conscience  was  condemning  me  more  than  ever.  I  went 
to  the  office  the  next  morning,  but  it  was  harder  than 
ever  before  to  get  my  thoughts  upon  the  contents  of  the 
book.  At  last,  I  threw  down  the  book  and  started  out 
to  call  upon  the  preacher,  and  tell  him  my  convictions, 
and  turn  on  the  Lord's  side.  I  was  almost  at  the  parson- 
age, when  the  Devil  came  and  pictured  out  to  me  all  of  the 
great  things  in  store  for  me  in  the  world,  and  reminded 


12 

me  of  the  prospect  of  making  money;  and  how  I  was 
already  beginning  to  earn  money  in  the  office ;  and  that 
a  Methodist  preacher  was  always  poor,  and  was  made 
fun  of  by  the  world.  Then  I  turned  around  and  went 
back  to  the  office,  and  went  to  work  again.  Not  many 
days  after,  however,  I  gave  up;  and  when  I  said,  "/  will" 
the  light  shown  in  again,  and  I  was  happy  in  God.  The 
world  was  a  new  world.  The  birds  sang  sweeter,  the 
flowers  looked  more  beautiful,  and  the  sun  shone  brighter 
and  more  golden  than  ever  before.  And  yet  the  change 
was  not  in  nature,  but  in  my  heart.  I  was  in  harmony 
with  everything,  when  in  accord  with  my  God.  People, 
who  can  not  find  anything  beautiful  in  this  world,  have 
nothing  beautiful  in  themselves.  To  a  saint  this  world  is 
good  enough  for  present  living,  and,  to  a  sinner  the  same 
world  is  a  dull  and  meaningless  thing;  and,  because  un- 
appreciated, it  is  too  good  for  him. 

After  the  struggle  was  over,  the  thought  of  going  out 
to  preach  the  gospel  demanded  some  attention.  The 
Discipline  and  the  Bible  were  my  constant  study.  Every 
day,  and,  in  fact,  every  time  I  took  up  the  Bible,  I  had  to 
turn  to  the  twenty-third  Psalm,  and  read  it.  I  had  never 
read  anything  so  sweet  and  comforting  as  that.  It 
was  the  very  language  of  my  heart.  The  Discipline  is  only 
the  condensed  milk  of  the  word.  And,  next  to  the  Bible, 
the  preacher  wants  the  Discipline. 


18 

MY  FIRST  APPOINTMENT. 

CHAPTER    II. 

In  the  fall  I  attended  conference  for  the  first  time,  be- 
ing recommended  to  the  conference  for  admission  on  trial. 
It  was  a  different  kind  of  association  from  what  I  was 
used  to.  Instead  of  lawyers,  criminals  and  hangers-on 
of  the  law,  I  was  in  the  company  of  a  large  body  of 
clean-hearted,  pure-minded  and  pure-mouthed  men.  I  had 
been  in  the  habit  of  smoking  cigars,  and  mingling  with 
smokers.  Here  in  this  company  there  was  no  tobacco 
smoke,  and  nothing  unbecoming.  I  do  not  mean  to  be 
understood  to  say  that  lawyers  are  bad  men;  for  there 
are  plenty  of  good  men  in  that  body  of  professionals,  and 
pure. minded  men  too ;  but  a  person  in  law  business  comes 
in  contact  with  a  great  many  more  bad  men,  than  the 
majority  of  the  people  outside  of  the  profession  are  aware 
of.  Neither  do  I  mean  to  infer  about  preachers,  that  they 
do  not  smoke.  For,  (I  am  sorry  to  say  it,)  there  are 
many  who  use  tobacco,  and  very  freely  too,  that  go  out  to 
preach;  and,  yet,  as  a  class  of  men,  I  can  truthfully  say, 
there  are  more  clean  men  than  in  any  other  body  of 
professionals  that  ever  assemble.  I  do  not  mean  to  cast 
any  reflection  upon  those  who  use  tobacco,  neither  would 
I  condemn  them;  but  I  can  say  for  myself  that  when 
I  went  into  the  ministry  I  felt  that  I  must  give  up 
my  tobacco,  and  I  did  so  with  the  help  of  the  Lord. 

The  session  of  conference  lasted  a  week;  and,  at  the 
close  of  that  session,  when  the  appointments  were  read,  I 
was  appointed  to  the  W—  —  circuit,  in  the  A —  — Dis- 


14 

trict,  W—  —  conference.  I  was  in  some  doubt  about  get- 
ting work  that  fall,  thinking  that  perhaps  others  could  be 
found  better  fitted  for  the  work  than  I  was.  So,  when 
my  name  was  read  out  by  the  Bishop,  the  Spirit  of  the 
Lord  came  upon  me,  and  I  knew  that  God  would  go  with 
me  to  my  first  field  of  labor.  After  learning  where  my 
circuit  was  located  and  how  to  get  there,  I  started  for 
that  place.  I  felt  from  the  moment  the  Spirit  came  upon 
me  that  I  was  going  to  have  a  revival  on  my  charge ;  and 
so  I  told  the  brethren,  to  their  astonishment,  before  I  left 
the  conference.  I  was  as  certain  of  the  fact  of  a  revival  as 
though  I  had  been  through  the  struggle.  It  was  no  won- 
der that  the  preachers  looked  a  little  surprised  at  the  pre- 
diction. I  was  prophesying  about  a  work  on  a  field  that 
I  was  unacquainted  with,  and  did  not  know  there  was 
such  a  place  until  I  heard  it  read  out  by  the  Bishop  in 
association  with  my  name;  and,  as  a  consequence,  did  not 
know  where  it  was.  But  that  others  doubted  my  state- 
ment did  not  change  my  mind  about  the  revival  which  I 
was  going  to  have  on  my  circuit. 

Well,  I  reached  my  circuit  in  due  time,  and  went  to  the 
house  of  a  local  preacher  to  stay  my  first  night.  The  local 
preacher,  of  course,  soon  learned  of  my  line  of  work.  I 
told  him  I  was  going  to  have  a  revival,  but  he  thought  I 
was  sort  of  an  enthusiast.  His  old  father  lived  with  him, 
and  he  began  to  laugh  at  me  for  saying  I  was  going  to 
have  a  revival.  I  had  never  been  on  a  charge  before,  and 
I  knew  nothing  about  church  work  or  revival  meetings. 
All  that  I  did  know  about  the  work  was  from  studying 
the  Bible  and  Discipline.  So  the  old  man  had  some  little 


15 

show  of  argument  against  me.  Finally  he  said:  "You 
are  only  a  little  boy  preacher,  and  what  do  you  know 
about  work?  Old  gray -haired  men  have  tried  to  have 
revivals  here  and  failed,  and  now  you,  a  boy  preacher, 
come  on  here  without  knowing  anything  about  the  place 
or  the  work,  and  talk  about  holding  a  revival  meeting." 
Well,  I  said,  God  is  greater  than  the  gray  hairs,  and  I  am 
going  to  have  a  revival.  I  knew  I  was. 

The  local  preacher  and  his  father  and  the  whole  family, 
in  fact,  were  somewhat  incensed  against  me,  because  I 
would  persist  in  talking  revival. 

The  next  day  was  Saturday,  and  I  was  expected  to 
go  out  to  the  farthest  limit  of  my  circuit  to  preach  my  first 
sermon  on  a  circuit,  and  the  third  one  of  all.  It  may  be 
well  to  give  a  description  of  the  circuit  right  here.  It  con- 
sisted of  seven  appointments.  The  place  wliere  the  local 
preacher  lived  was  headquarters  for  the  whole  charge.  As 
I  am  anxious  to  furnish  no  clue  to  the  field  of  labor,  for 
many  reasons,  I  shall  use  ficticious  names  for  the  different 
appointments.  The  first  place  to  be  described  is  head- 
quarters, and  we  will  call  it  Yale.  This  place  was  com- 
posed of  a  hotel,  that  had  a  lively  trade  over  the  bar;  a 
store  and  postoffice,  combined,  a  blacksmith  shop,  a  saw- 
mill, a  school-house,  a  church,  (M.  E.  church)  and  a  few 
dwellings,  perhaps  a  dozen.  It  was  on  the  main  road  to 
a  thriving  town  where  a  number  of  large  tanneries  were 
doing  a  vast  business,  and  the  most  of  the  hemlock  bark 
for  these  large  tanneries  went  through  Yale.  The  most  of 
the  bark-haulers  were  Catholic  Irish,  and  although  there 
are  plenty  of  good,  industrious,  sober  people  in  that 


16 

church,  yet,  the  whole  raft  of  these  haulers  were  hard 
drinkers.  Yale  was  just  far  enough  from  the  tanneries  to 
permit  the  men  to  get  very  dry  again  by  the  time  they 
could  reach  there  from  town.  So  fighting,  swearing, 
drinking  and  running  horses  were  everyday  occurrences 
there.  And  the  hotel-keeper  was  getting  rich;  as  many  a 
poor  man  left  the  price  of  his  load  of  bark  with  the  bar- 
keeper, as  he  loaded  him  on  to  his  wagon  and  started  him 
home  dead-drunk.  The  next  place  was  Jones,  a  place 
about  five  miles  east  of  Yale.  It  was  a  school-house  ap- 
pointment where  about  fifteen  or  twenty  would  turn  out 
to  meeeting  on  a  fair  day.  Another  point  was  Tallman 
about  two  miles  south  of  Yale,  a  school-house  appoint- 
ment. At  this  place  I  always  had  a  full  house.  Then  four 
miles  east  of  this  place  I  had  another  appointment, — The 
Maple  school^iouse.  And  then  seven  miles  south  of  Yale 
I  had  another  little  village  appointment  which  we  will 
call  Graves.  Here,  also,  they  had  a  hotel,  two  stores,  a 
grist  mill  and  sawmill,  a  blacksmith  shop,  a  school-house 
and  about  a  dozen  dwelling  houses.  The  people  were 
good-hearted  people,  but  took  no  interest  in  religion. 
Three  miles  farther  south  from  Graves  was  the  Baker  ap- 
pointment. Here  we  had  a  little  class  of  half  a  dozen 
members.  It  was  situated  in  a  little  ravine  where  three  or 
four  streams  came  together  and  formed  the  S —  — river, 
one  of  the  principal  rivers  of  the  state  of  B —  — .  The 
next  and  last  one  of  the  appointments  was  Arnold.  Here 
were  half  a  dozen  houses,  a  school-house  a  hotel,  con- 
verted into  a  shoeshop,  and  a  dwelling,  and  one  store,— 
all  shut  in  by  the  hills.  This  place  was  fourteeen  miles 


THE   BAKER  SCHOOL-HOUSE. 


17 

from  headquarters.  So  the  circuit  was  some  five  miles 
wide  and  fourteen  miles  long.  As  I  have  already  stated, 
I  was  to  preach  my  first  sermon  at  the  Arnold  appoint- 
ment, fourteen  miles  out.  Saturday  came  and  with  it  the 
rain  in  abundance.  I  had  no  horse,  and  as  the  local 
preacher  did  not  offer  a  horse  nor  to  accompany  me  him- 
self, and  take  me  there,  I  had  to  go  afoot  and  alone.  I 
suppose  the  local  preacher  did  not  like  something  said  by 
me,  but  I  do  not  know  to  this  day,  (unless  it  was  my  talk- 
ing revival,)  what  it  was. 

Anyway,  with  three  or  four  horses  in  the  barn,  he  al- 
lowed me  to  start  off  on  foot  with  a  thin  overcoat  and 
leaky  boots  without  any  rubbers,  a  heavy  rain  pouring 
down  ana  very  muddy  roads.  I  walked  seven  miles  to 
Graves,  ana,  when  I  got  there,  1  was  well-soaked.  I  went 
into  the  store  at  this  place  and  the  merchant,  finding  out 
who  I  was,  invited  me  to  stay  to  dinner  and  "dry  off  a 
little,"  and  he  would  try  and  get  a  ride  for  me.  The  teams 
all  went  the  other  way  that  day ;  so  after  dinner  I  started 
out  again  on  my  journey.  The  roads  were  flooded  in  some 
places,  and  I  had  to  walk  on  logs  and  rails  sometimes. 
When  I  reached  the  next  place,  which  was  Baker,  I  felt  as 
though  I  ought  to  "hang  up  to  dry."  But  the  next  day 
was  my  first  Sabbath  in  the  work,  and  so  I  steamed  ahead 
for  the  next  place.  When  I  came  within  two  miles  of 
Arnold,  I  stopped  at  the  house  of  a  good  Methodist  to 
stay  over  night,  if  possible,  but  the  old  folks  were  away 
and  the  girls  were  at  home  alone.  They  invited  me  in  and 
built  up  a  big  fire  in  the  old  elevated-oven  stove  and  tried 
to  dry  the  young  preacher.  But  the  hotter  it  got  the  more 


18 

I  steamed;  and  after  eating  a  lunch  I  started  for  the 
"burg."  The  rain  instead  of  ''letting  up"  was  "letting 
down ;  "  and,  when  I  reached  the  old  hotel  stand,  I  was 
taken  in  by  the  good  lady  of  the  house,  who  was  a  whole- 
souled  Methodist,  and  I  rested  after  a  day  of  queer  and 
wet  experiences.  I  was  more  of  a  Baptist  than  a  Method- 
ist that  day ;  or,  if  a  Methodist,  I  had  endured  an  over- 
dose of  sprinkling.  The  good  sister  finding  the  young 
preacher  wet  and  cold,  fired  up  the  kitchen  stove  "seven 
times  hotter  than  it  was  wont  to  be  heated  "and  brought 
the  old  man's  best  suit  out,  shirt  and  all,  for  me  to  put  on. 
After  I  had  changed  my  clothes,  she  collected  the  wet 
clothes  and  hung  them  around  the  hot  stove,  until  it 
looked  as  though  the  young  preacher  had  been  cut  up  to 
dry.  The  boots  had  no  shine  and  no  shape,  and  it  took 
the  united  efforts  of  two  to  get  the  preacher  out  of  his 
boots.  This  was  my  introduction  as  a  circuit  rider,  and, 
moreover,  I  was  a  circuit  rider  on  foot.  I  fulfilled  part  of 
the  scripture  anyway,  for  I  came  by  water.  That  was  a 
peculiar  introduction  to  the  ministry.  There  was  com- 
bined in  it  Methodist  zeal,  Baptist  soaking,  Presbyterian 
go-through-to-the-end,  Episcopalian  go-it-alone  and  Uni- 
versalistic  come-out-all-right-in-the-end.  Getting  into  some 
stained,  streaked,  crimped  and  shrunken  clothes  and  more 
shrunken  boots  the  next  morning,  I  was  ready  to  preach 
my  first  sermon  on  a  circuit. 


19 


MY  FIRST  SABBATH  ON  A  CHARGE. 

CHAPTER  III. 

It  had  ceased  to  rain  when  the  morning  dawned,  and, 
although  the  roads  were  very  muddy,  there  was  a  goodly 
number  out  to  the  morning  service  at  the  school-house  at 
Arnold.  We  had  a  good  time  at  that  first  meeting,  and 
the  Lord  blessed  us  all.  That  meeting  alone  paid  me  for 
my  trouble  the  day  before.  The  Lord  paid  me  double 
wages  for  walking  in  the  mud  and  rain  fourteen  miles. 
Then  I  started  back,  after  eating  a  hasty  dinner,  on  the 
road  I  traveled  the  day  before.  The  afternoon  appoint- 
ment was  at  Baker.  I  waded  mud  and  water,  and  leaped 
mudholes  and  little  streams,  and  walked  logs  and  rails, 
and  all  the  time  praising  God  and  singing  old  Methodist 
hymns.  The  Baker  appointment  was  a  school-house  ap-  • 
pointment.  But  it  was  not  more  than  half  a.  school-house. 
The  little,  old  school-house  had  one  row  of  seats  on  each 
side  extending  from  the  aisle  to  the  wall.  The  seats  had 


20 

been  whittled  and  carved  and  bored  through  with  jack- 
knives  until  they  hardly  held  together.  There  were,  I 
think,  a  dozen  of  such  seats,  all  told,  in  the  room.  Then 
the  teacher's  desk  and  platform  must  have  been  built  in 
the  days  when  it  was  safe  for  the  pedagogue  to  have  some- 
thing to  hide  behind  at  certain  times.  I  used  to  call  it  "the 
box  stall."  There  were  two  steps  to  get  up  to  the  plat- 
form, which  was  very  narrow,  so  that,  between  the  side 
of  the  building  and  the  rough  board  desk,  (built  of  boards 
set  on  end  with  a  board  flat  on  top  for  a  table)  there  was 
hardly  room  to  be  seated  comfortably  without  turning 
sidewise;  and,  even  then  the  seat  was  a  narrow  board 
fastened  to  the  side  of  the  house.  Once  seated  behind  this, 
one  could  just  see  over  the  top  of  it  and  take  good  aim  at 
the  heads  of  those  in  the  back  seats.  It  was  a  sort  of 
"rifle pit"  in  times  of  rebellion.  Then  again,  the  school- 
house  had  been  built  way  down  in  the  lot,  at  least  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  road,  so  that  travelers  could 
go  by  without  having  to  run  much  risk,  probably.  When 
I  arrived  at  this  little,  old  house,  I  found  eight  or  ten  in 
the  room  waiting  to  hear  the  new  preacher,  and  "  size  him 
up."  I  climbed  up  into  the  teacher's  place  and  took  a 
seat,  to  shield  me  from  the  sharp  eyes  of  my  congregation, 
and  I  found  the  desk  not  only  serviceable  in  that  respect,  but, 
also  it  served  to  hide  my  feet,  so  that  they  could  not  see 
how  big  my  feet  were,  nor  how  muddy  my  boots  were, 
nor  how  many  wrinkles  I  had  in  my  pants,  nor  how  I  had 
them  plastered  over  with  mud.  So,  with  such  good  pro- 
tection, I  was  in  shape  to  preach  my  second  sermon.  I 
did  the  best  I  could  with  wet  feet.  After  the  meeting  was 


21 

over  I  went  to  the  house  of  a  good  Methodist  brother  and 
had  some  supper  and  dried  my  feet,  so  that  I  could  get 
them  wet  again  going  to  the  next  place. 

The  evening  appointment  was  at  Graves.  When  I 
reached  there,  I  found  a  good  number  out.  The  largest 
audience  of  the  day.  It  was  a  school-house,  and,  when  I 
came  within  a  number  of  rods  of  the  house,  I  could  hear 
the  roar  within.  It  sounded  some  like  the  mighty  waves 
of  the  ocean  dashing  against  the  rocks,  and,  sometimes, 
like  the  rumbling  of  a  great  mill.  I  was  almost  afraid  to 
open  the  door,  for  fear  the  Lion  wotild  jump  out  at  me.  I 
stood  outside  for  a  few  minutes  scraping  and  rubbing  to 
get  the  mud  off  and  get  all  of  the  kinks  out  of  my  pants 
and  coat,  which  seemed  to  bear  marks  of  the  washing  I 
gave  them  the  day  before.  That  was  quite  a  suspense  to 
me  as  I  stood  outside.  I  got  hold  of  the  door  and  slowly 
pushed  it  open  and  glided  up  onto  the  platform,  which 
was  between  the  two  doors.  I  had  before  me  a  rough  and 
noisy  crowd  of  good  hearted  people.  They  looked  me 
over  from  head  to  foot  and  from  left  to  right,  and  tried  to 
see  my  back ;  but  nature  has  one  good  law  that  prevents 
a  man  turning  a  corner  with  his  vision.  He  can  not  see 
behind  the  pulpit  nor  see  the  many  wrinkles  in  the  back  of 
the  preacher's  coat,  when  the  preacher  is  facing  the  audi- 
ence. I  do  not  know  what  I  said  that  night  in  particular, 
but  the  general  run  of  my  talk  was  what  I  considered  the 
duty  of  a  Methodist  preacher.  I  feared  that  they  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  night  that  the  performance  of  my 
duty  in  Graves  would  not  be  conducive  to  the  highest 
pleasure  of  the  pleasure-loving  people  of  that  place,  fer 


22 

that  was  the  only  time  I  saw  that  audience  in  that  school- 
house  for  six  months,  or  more.  But  I  learned  in  time  that 
they  always  went  to  hear  the  first  and  last  sermon  a 
preacher  delivered  there,  and  were  thus  able  to  tell  how 
much  a  man  could  or  did  improve  in  a  year.  That  night 
I  went  and  staid  with  a  merchant, — a  good,  liberal  and 
friendly  man.  His  home  was  always  open  to  a  Method- 
ist preacher.  All  of  the  people  were  very  friendly  and 
made  the  preacher  welcome,  but  they  had  no  time  to  go 
to  church.  That  night  I  slept  with  the  consciousness  of 
having  done  all  I  could  for  the  Master.  But  it  was  a  poor 
service.  I  believe  the  Lord  blessed  me  more  for  my  four- 
teen miles  walk  in  the  rain  and  mud  the  day  before,  than 
for  the  sermons  I  tried  to  preach  on  Sunday ;  for  I  was 
used  to  walking  and  knew  how  to  do  it,  but  I  was  not 
used  to  preaching  God's  word,  and  knew  not  how  to 
preach  it.  I  know  I  was  accepted  of  God,  however,  for  I 
had  done  all  I  was  able  to  do,  and  that  is  acceptable 
to  God  at  anytime. 


23 


MY  FIRST  REVIVAL. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

The  headquarters  of  the  circuit  were  at  Yale  appoint- 
ment, where  was  built  the  only  church  on  the  circuit.  At 
this  place  the  local  preacher  lived.  I  began  my  work  as 
the  Discipline  requires,  visiting  from  house  to  house  and 
praying  with  the  people.  I  was  very  timid  when  I  began 
my  work,  and  sometimes  I  have  stood  on  the  doorstep  of 
a  house  and  could  hardly  muster  up  courage  enough  to 
knock  on  the  door  or  ring  a  bell ;  and  after  knocking,  I 
have  felt  my  heart  come  up  in  my  throat  and  my  knees 
shake  like  wicked  Belshazzar's  when  he  saw  the  hand- 
writing on  the  wall.  Once  in  a  house  and  seated,  I  hardly 
knew  what  to  do  with  myself.  It  was  very  hard,  also,  to 
ask  the  privilege  of  having  prayer  with  a  family  before 
going  away.  I  have  staid  many  times,  during  my  first 
year,  an  hour  longer  than  I  wanted  to  just  trying  to  get 
brave  enough  to  ask  the  privilege  of  prayer. 


24 

Late  in  the  fall  I  announced  at  the  church  revival 
meetings.  The  rain  came  down  in  torrents  on  the  first 
night  of  the  meetings,  and  the  brethren  present,  including 
the  local  preacher  and  his  father,  thought  it  better  not  to 
hold  meetings  at  present.  They  thought  I  ought  to  wait 
until  the  roads  were  better  and  the  rain  over.  To  tell  the 
truth  about  the  matter,  the  local  preacher  and  his  father 
and  a  few  others  were  not  in  favor  of  my  holding  meet- 
ings anyway.  I  finally  consented  to  postpone  the  meet- 
ings for  one  week,  but  this  did  not  please  them  altogether. 
I  was  certain  of  victory  and  so  I  would  obey  God  rather 
than  man.  So  the  next  week  I  appointed  meetings  again, 
and  the  rain  came  also ;  in  fact  it  had  been  coming  all  of 
the  time  for  two  or  three  weeks.  The  local  preacher  and 
his  father  were  on  hand,  but  growled,  and  perhaps  they 
came  that  night  to  get  in  their  growl.  Rain  or  no  rain, 
roads  or  no  roads,  I  had  started  a  through  train  that 
time,  and  I  did  not  need  any  brakeman  on  that  train. 
The  meetings  increased  day  after  day,  and^the  mud  too. 
I  secured  a  good  brother  to  help  me  in  the  meetings,  and 
when  the  work  was  over  we  counted  seventy  conversions. 
The  people  came  for  miles  around.  They  came  with  horse 
teams  and  ox  teams,  on  horseback  and  on  foot,  some  in 
lumber  wagons,  some  on  "buckboards"  and  some  in  ox 
carts.  And  probably  some  did  not  come  anyway. 

Well,  after  such  a  work  as  that  sometimes  there  comes 
in  a  devil  to  "help  string  the  fish,"  as  they  say.  There 
were  more  people  outside  of  the  Methodist  church 
professing  to  enjoy  religion,  that  were  continually  making 
preparations  to  "string  the  fish"  than  were  actually  en- 


THE  YALE  CHURCH. 


gaged  in  trying  to  catch  the  fish.  The  Free  Methodist 
church  had  a  fish  string  and  were  anxious  to  string  some 
of  the  fish.  The  Protestant  Methodist  church  was  ex- 
tremely anxious  in  regard  to  the  stringing  of  the  fish.  Then 
the  First  and  Second  Day  Adventists  and  the  Seventh  Day 
Baptists,  although  they  did  not  "go  a- fishing1'  with  us, 
rather  laid  claim  to  some  of  the  spoils,  and  so  they  came 
in  to  do  their  best  to  "string  the  most  fish."  It  did  look 
at  one  time  as  though  they  had  came  to  a  mutual  agree- 
ment among  themselves  that  he  should  be  branded  the 
"  best  /e//ow"who  could  get  the  most  proselytes,  and 
that  the  Seventh  Day  Baptist  preachers,  (for  they  had 
sometimes  three  of  their  preachers  on  hand,)  and  the 
Free  Methodist  preacher  and  the  Protestant  preacher 
were  in  the  ring  for  the  prize.  I  sometimes  thought  they 
would  overthrow  the  whole  work.  I  trusted  in  God  to 
help  me  through  and  care  for  my  interest.  I  never  did  any 
proselyting,  and  when  the  others  had  gone  far  enough 
with  it  I  "opened  fire"  on  their  old  fortifications  and 
made  them  mad.  When  the  smoke  of  battle  cleared  away 
I  had  the  privilege  of  taking  into  the  Methodist  church 
the  best  part  of  the  converts ;  and  they  came  of  their  own 
free  will  too. 

One  of  the  young  men  converted  in  the  meetings 
leaned  toward  our  church  and  would  have  joined,  but  the 
Seventh  Day  Baptists  persuaded  him  that  the  true  Sabbath 
was  Saturday,  and  so  he  finally  "turned  his  coat"  and 
went  to  keeping  Saturday  for  Sunday.  I  am  afraid  they 
read  their  Bibles  backwards  and  bottom-side  up  too. 
The  spirit  of  that  ecclesiastical  body  is  quite  truthfully  por- 


28 

trayed  in  the  story  of  Don  Quixote,  who  knew  nothing 
outside  of  certain  books.  So  the  Saturday  worshipers 
lay  more  stress  upon  the  day  than  the  Gospel  of  Christ; 
and  it  is  because  they  read  the  Old  Testament  with  the 
"vail  upon  their  hearts."  Some  people  like  to  be  out  of 
joint  with  the  rest  of  the  world,  and  they  are  always  an 
insignificant  minority.  It  is  like  the  man  questioning  the 
drowning  boy  about  his  falling  in  the  water,  and  chiding 
him  for  getting  into  deep  water,  rather  than  trying  to 
help  him  out  and  save  his  life.  All  a  drowning  man  wants 
is  rescue.  These  false  teachers  that  strain  at  a  gnat  and 
swallow  a  camel  will  wake  up  some  day.  While  souls  are 
dying  all  around  us  a  man  has  no  business  with  anything 
that  will  not  help  a  soul  out  of  danger  and  to  Christ. 

In  order  to  train  this  young  man  in  their  faith,  and, 
also,  to  keep  him  in  the  right  way,  one  of  the  members  of 
that  church  employed  him  to  work  for  him.  But  I  fear 
the  Devil  got  him  at  last.  He  had  been  regarded  as  a 
steady,  honest  young  man.  A  strange  thing,  however, 
happened  in  connection  with  this  young  proselyte.  The 
man  he  worked  for,  who  was  the  main  man  in  the  Seventh 
Day  Baptist  class,  had  a  number  of  things  stolen  one 
night,  including  a  large  ham.  No  one  seemed  to  know  any- 
thing about  them,  and  there  was  no  clue  to  the  stolen 
property.  Not  long  after  this  a  fire  was  discovered  in  a 
pile  of  lumber,  in  the  center  of  a  lot  belonging  to  this 
young  man,  and  parties  going  to  put  out  the  fire  discov- 
ered the  stolen  property  in  the  lumber  pile,  ham  and  all. 
This  young  man  had  stolen  them  without  any  earthly 
use  for  them,  not  even  for  the  ham,  unless  to  make  a  meat- 


20 

offering  of  it  to  the  gods  of  the  Seventh  Day,  which  he 
was  trying  to  do,  using  his  lumber  pile  as  an  altar  and 
fuel.  Ashamed  of  what  he  had  done,  and  failing  to  burn 
out  the  evidence  of  his  guilt,  either  in  the  community  or 
the  church  or  his  conscience,  he  left  the  country,  while  an 
old  father. and  mother  were  left  behind  filled  with  shame 
and  sorrow.  That  was  the  end  of  a  Seventh  Day  Baptist 
proselyte. 

The  Free  Methodists  succeeded  in  getting  two  mem- 
bers of  the  M.  E.  church  to  go  off  with  them.  The  church 
they  left  was  no  worse  off  without  them  nor  weaker, 
either  financially  or  spiritually,  and  if  the  other  church 
gained  anything  by  the  accessions,  I  hardly  think  any- 
body envied  them  their  gain.  So  amid  all  the  struggle 
and  through  it  all  the  M.  E  church  lost  no  strength  with 
God's  help.  The  work  over  here,  I  was  now  ready  for 
meetings  at  another  point,  and  thither  I  went  full  of  faith 
and  the  Holy  Ghost. 


REVIVAL  AT  THE  TALLMAN  SCHOOL  HOUSE. 

CHAPTER   V. 

The  people  of  Tallman  neighborhood  were  good- 
hearted  people  but  rather  rude,  some  of  them,  and  very 
much  in  need  of  a  revival.  When  I  contemplated  going  to 
Tallman  to  start  meetings,  the  local  preacher  was  as 
much  opposed  to  my  going  there  as  he  was  to  my 
starting  meetings  at  Yale.  He  thought  the  people  were 
too  wicked  for  me  to  do  anything  with  or  for  them,  but 
such  shallow  counsel  on  such  shallow  reasons  was  alto- 
gether to  thin  for  me  to  waste  five  minutes  to  even  hear 
him  talk.  So  I  treated  his  advice  just  as  people  do  slops 
on  a  wash  day,  I  threw  it  away.  The  meetings  com- 
menced, continued  and  ended  in  a  rain  storm.  We  had 
rain  in  place  of  snow  about  all  winter.  The  work  started 
with  a  good  interest  and  we  were  having  good  work 
done;  souls  were  being  converted,  and  among  the  rest  a 
poor  drunkard  for  whom  a  faithful  wife  had  long  prayed. 
She  came  three  miles  afoot  in  rain  and  mud  to  get  to  the 


31 

meetings  and  God  saved  her  husband  and  some  of  her 
children.  When  the  meetings  were  at  this  high  pitch  of 
interest  the  Devil  undertook  to  overthrow  it.  The  local 
preacher  had  a  hand  in  it,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  for  through 
a  friend  of  his  he  sought  to  close  the  school-house  against 
us.  If  I  had  an  enemy  the  same  was  always  a  friend  of  the 
local  P.  They  agitated  the  matter  thoroughly  throughout 
the  neighborhood,  and  then  came  to  the  meeting,  and  the 
friend  of  the  local  preacher  was  "spokesman."  He  arose 
about  the  close  of  the  meeting  and  said  that  it  w  as  the 
sentiment  of  the  district  that  the  meetings  should  not 
continue  longer  in  the  house. 

"Well,"  I  said,  "the  majority  of  the  people  who  are 
interested  are  here,  and  I  guess  I  will  put  it  to  a  vote." 

So  I  called  for  a  vote  of  the  people  on  the  question, 
and  only  four  or  five  voted  against  the  meetings  continu- 
ing. That  ended  the  matter  as  to  the  use  of  the  house, 
so  the  enemy  had  to  sharpen  his  tools  and  attack  us  at 
another  point. 

The  meetings  were  thrown  open  for  all  to  take  part 
who  desired,  so  the  enemy  thought  he  would  try  us  at 
that  point.  The  next  thing  was  to  find  a  man  for  a  tool. 
There  was  living  about  three  miles  from  the  schoolhouse 
a  very  rough  old  man  who  hated  preachers,  Methodist 
preachers  especially,  and  a  lover  of  the  Devil  and  a  practi- 
tioner of  his  Satanic  arts.  He  had  some  learning  and  a 
boasted  ability  to  outwit  any  preacher  in  the  country. 
He  was  one  of  those  preacher- tormenters,  and  a  hard  case. 
It  was  like  Goliah  of  Gath  going  out  to  meet  little  David. 
He  was  a  big,  surly  fellow,  with  a  fist  big  enough  for  a 


32 

mawl,  almost,  and  a  foot  to  match.  They  invited  him  to 
come  down  to  the  meeting  and  talk,  as  I  allowed  the  priv" 
ilege  for  all  to  speak  that  so  desired.  So  the  "old  tar1' 
came  down  bent  on  mischief.  I  held  my  meeting  as  usual, 
and  preached  a  sermon  that  pricked  the  old  man  a  little 
without  knowing  that  I  had  done  it.  When  the  meeting 
was  thrown  open  to  all,  the  old  man  took  his  place  on 
the  floor  and  began  contradicting  my  sermon.  After  he 
finished  I  arose  and  put  the  answer  in  the  form  of  an 
appeal  to  the  audience  as  to  which  side  of  the  case  they 
would  be  willing  to  run  the  risk  of  an  eternity.  The 
result  was  better  gained  thus  than  by  any  contra- 
diction. The  old  man  could  not  stand  that  kind  of 
repulse  in  silence,  so  he  arose  to  speak  again,  and  his  voice 
seemed  to  change  until  it  sounded  like  the  roar  of  a  mad 
bull  or  a  caged  lion.  He  was  frightened  and  so  were  his 
friends,  for  they  knew  not  what  to  make  of  the  change.  I 

arose  and  called  him  to  order,  and  said  to  him :    "Mr. > 

if  what  you  are  going  to  say,  you  are  certain  will  help  any 
one  to  live  a  better  life  or  reform,  you  can  speak  on,  other- 
wise, I  want  you  to  take  your  seat  and  keep  still."  It  is 
evident  that  he  did  not  think  his  talk  would  do  anyone 
any  good,  for  he  took  his  seat,  but  in  a  rage.  He  came 
two  or  three  nights  to  the  meeting,  and  every  time  he 
came  he  was  a  worse  man  than  before.  Finally  he  raved 
so  much  that  he  frightened  many  of  the  women.  His 
friends  were  backing  him  up  still,  for  they  hated  to  suffer 
a  defeat.  So  they  arranged  for  a  meeting  and  had  the 
old  man  announce  it  in  my  meeting,  appointing  it  the 
next  night,  on  my  own  night,  too.  So  I  took  up  my 


33 

appointment  for  that  night,  for  I  could  do  no  other  way 
without  sore  trouble.  The  old  man  was  to  preach.  Some 
of  the  Christian  people  wanted  to  know  what  I  was  going 
to  do,  and  I  told  them  I  was  going  to  the  meeting.  So 
we  went,  a  goodly  number  of  the  Christian  people.  The 
"  old  tar"  came  in  and  threw  down  his  hat  with  a  good 
deal  of  force  upon  the  desk  and  said  something  that 
made  some  of  them  laugh.  He  then  pulled  off  his  big 
overcoat  and  threw  it  on  the  floor,  and  took  a  chair  and 
looked  over  the  crowd.  The  Devil  had  begun  his  revival. 
I  took  a  seat  in  the  audience  to  see  the  end,  if  there  should 
be  any  end  that  night.  The  old  fellow  arose  and  began 
by  saying  something  about  the  young  preacher.  Then 
he  began  one  of  the  most  abusive  harangues  that  one 
would  care  to  listen  to.  He  abused  me  as  much  as  he 
could,  and  even  threatened  my  life.  Then  he  tried  to  show 
that  I  did  not  preach  the  Bible,  as  I  claimed  to  do.  So  he 
selected  a  chapter  and  tried  to  read  it,  but  he  could  not 
read  the  first  line  of  the  first  verse;  so,  one  of  his  backers, 
a  little  Englishman,  who  thought  himself  smarter  than 
most  of  the  people,  went  up  to  read  the  chapter  for  the 
old  man,  but  it  seemed  as  though  God  choked  him  down, 
for  he  could  not  read  the  first  verse,  and  had  to  take  his 
seat  looking  very  red  in  the  face.  I  arose  and  went  up 
and  said  to  him,  "I  will  read  it  for  you,  if  you  wish." 
The  fellow  took  his  chair  saying,  "  Yes  !  Yes  !  " 

Taking  the  Bible.  I  said,  "Now,  my  friends,  this  is 
God's  word,  let  us  have  quiet.  I  do  not  ask  you  to  be 
quiet  simply  on  my  account,  but  this  is  God's  word,  and 
I  want  you  to  hear  what  God  has  to  say."  They  quieted 


84 

down  aud  were  very  still  all  through  the  reading  of  the 
chapter.  After  I  had  taken  my  seat  the  old  man  began 
to  talk  again  about  me,  and  attempted  to  prove  from 
the  chapter  read,  that  I  was  all  wrong  and  leading  the 
people  astray.  I  certainly  was  leading  them  astray,  if  he 
was  to  be  the  judge;  for  we  were  going  another  road  from 
what  he  was.  He  talked  for  perhaps  a  half  hour  or  more, 
and  then  took  the  Bible  again  to  read  out  of  it.  He  tried 
to  quiet  the  house,  as  I  had  done  when  I  read,  but  the 
people  only  laughed  at  him.  He  tried  to  read,  and  could 
not  read  the  selection ;  so  I  went  up  again  and  read  the 
second  chapter  for  him,  which  seemed  to  rather  madden 
than  please  him,  that  I  could  read  it  and  he  could  not.  So 
about  all  that  he  had  to  say  that  night  was  abuse  for  me 
and  wicked  threats  of  what  he  would  do  to  me,  if  I  did 
not  stop  my  preaching  there.  There  ended  the  Devil's 
work  for  that  night. 

The  next  night  I  held  my  meeting  as  usual,  and  after 
the  sermon  a  very  wicked  man,  a  "State's  prison  bird," 
as  they  call  an  ex-convict,  and  his  wife  came  forward  and 
were  both  soundly  converted.  He  said  he  came  the  night 
before  to  help  on  the  other  meeting,  and  he  became  con- 
vinced that  our  side  was  right,  and  he  could  see  a  big 
difference  in  the  spirit  manifested  on  our  side,  from  that 
on  the  other.  So  the  Devil  lost  some  ground  in  that  cam- 
paign. We  had  better  work  after  the  battle  waxed  hot. 

A  few  nights  after  this  I  came  to  the  meeting,  and 
found  most  of  the  people  standing  outside  of  the  school- 
house.  On  inquiry  I  learned  that  the  old  man  was  inside, 
and  was  seated  on  the  platform,  and  gave  them  to  know 


THE  TALLMAN  SCHOOL-HOUSE. 


that  I   was  not  going  to  have  a  meeting  that  night,  but 
that  he  was  going  to  have  one  himself.     I  walked  around 
the    schoolhouse  and  found  some  of  his    disciples,    and 
backers,  amusing  themselves  over  the  prospect.     I  said  to 
them,    "If  you  do  not  take  that  old  man  out  of  that 
house,  and  keep  him  out,  I  will  have  him  arrested  to-mor- 
row." So  they  went  in  and  led  the  fellow  out  and  off.  We 
had  no  more  trouble  with  him  at  the  school-house.    I  had 
not  escaped  individually,  however,  the  troublesome  old 
man  of  sin,  for  he  would  follow  me  up  when  visiting,  and 
abuse   me   the    worst   kind.     Sometimes  he  would  come 
where  I  stayed  over  night,  before  we  had  finished  break- 
fast, and  would  yell  so  that  the  neighbors  could  hear  him, 
and  since  the  first  night  that  he  talked  at  the  school-house 
his  voice  was  like  a  lion's  roar.    The  Devil  had  him,  and 
the  Devil  had  an  abiding  place  in  his  heart,  too.   He  finally 
became  so  bad  that  his  friends  had  to  nail  him  up  in  his 
room  to  keep  him  home.     His  backers  were  whipped-out, 
for  they  were  ashamed  of  their  leader,  and  ashamed  of 
their  course  and  of  themselves,  for  causing  such  trouble 
in  this  old  man's  family,  and  in  the  neighborhood.     Our 
meetings  continued   until  we  were  ready  to  stop  them, 
and  we  had  many  converted.    God  made  the  wrath  of 
man  to  praise  him. 

During  these  meetings  we  enjoyed  much  of  God's 
presence  and  power.  Some  of  the  meetings  were  wonder- 
ful in  power.  We  held  the  cottage  prayer-meetings  every 
day.  Some  days  it  was  a  spiritual  feast  all  day,  and  all 
night.  They  had  a  good  custom  of  reading  around  at 
family  altar  and  all  uniting  in  prayer.  So  a  family  altar 


38 

was  sometimes  a  real  prayer- meeting.  One  morning  I 
engaged  with  the  family,  where  I  stayed  over  night,  in 
the  family  devotions,  and  then  crossing  the  road  I  found 
the  neighbor  about  to  have  family  prayer.  They  furnished 
me  with  a  Bible  and  I  joined  with  them  in  reading  the 
morning  lesson,  each  one  reading  a  verse  from  oldest  to 
youngest.  Then  we  all  went  to  praying  one  after  an- 
other until  all  had  prayed.  A  little  ways  up  the  road 
were  living  a  young  couple  lately  converted,  and  I  said  to 
some  of  them  after  prayer,  "let  us  go  up  and  help  our 
young  couple  in  their  family  altar."  So  off  we  started. 
They  were  just  finishing  breakfast  when  we  arrived.  So 
we  had  a  glorious  time  with  them  as  we  approached  the 
"mercy  seat."  That  was  a  morning  meal.  Then  after 
dinner  we  had  meeting  at  a  house  out  in  a  lot,  away  from 
any  road.  Some  were  sick  and  unable  to  go  to  meeting, 
so  we  went  over  to  pray  with  them,  and  God 
sent  down  the  Holy  Ghost  upon  us.  There  were 
many  shining  faces  that  afternoon.  That  evening  we  met 
at  the  school-house  for  our  regular  revival  meeting.  We 
were  in  good  shape  for  such  a  work  after  our  day  of  com- 
munion. That  night  we  had  a  shower  of  blessings.  It 
seemed  that  day  as  if  it  had  been  showers  upon  showers, 
and  blessings  as  thick  as  rain  drops  in  a  shower,  and  they 
fell  upon  everybody  who  loved  the  Lord.  Just  at  the 
close  of  the  evening  meeting,  some  one  proposed  another 
meeting  that  night  two  miles  away,  and  some  four  miles 
out  of  the  way  for  some  of  the  earnest  ones.  Accordingly 
it  was  given  out,  and  we  started  after  ten  o'clock  at 
night  for  a  cottage  prayer-meeting.  One  poor  sister  and 


39 

husband  and  children  came  "afoot"  to  the  meetings,  and 
anxious  to  enjoy  the  late  meeting,  decided  to  walk  two 
miles  farther  away  from  home,  for  the  sake  of  attending 
this  night  meeting.  The  meeting  was  well-attended,  and 
while  we  prayed  the  Lord  sent  down  the  Holy  Ghost 
upon  us.  Everybody  in  the  house  was  filled  with  the 
laughing  spirit  that  night,  and  they  laughed  heart- 
ily. That  meeting  was  always  alluded  to  as  the  "laugh- 
ing meeting."  We  had  the  best  of  the  wine  at  the  last  of 
the  feast. 

Then  we  had  another  kind  of  meeting  which  I  termed 
"double  meetings."  I  claimed  that  agreement  would 
bring  the  Holy  Ghost  according  to  the  promise ;  so  some- 
times we  failed  to  agree.  Then,  if  we  had  a  dull  meeting, 
I  would  at  the  close  of  the  meeting  begin  over  as  if  we 
had  just  met  for  meeting.  At  one  of  these  meetings,  of 
which  I  speak,  we  had  prayed,  and  we  had  sung,  and  we 
had  talked,  and  there  was  no  life  in  the  whole  service. 
An  old  man  and  his  son  were  there  in  the  house,  both  of 
them  ungodly  men.  I  arose  as  if  to  close  the  meeting, 
and  I  said  to  the  Christian  people,  "  we  came  hereto  get  a 
blessing  and  to  be  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  without 
which  we  can  do  nothing ;  now,  why  did  not  God  fulfill 
his  promise?  Just  because  we  \vere  not  all  agreed 
'  touching  one  thing.'  Now,  we  will  begin  all  over  again, 
and  let  as  all  pray  for  the  descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost." 
We  began  in  earnest  to  seek  for  God's  blessing  and  it 
speedily  came,  thanks  be  to  God  ;  and  some  shouted  for 
joy,  some  laughed,  some  cried  and  some  were  gliding  over 
a  sea  of  glorious  calm,  and  some  were  praying  and 


40 

praising  God.  All  at  once  there  was  a  new  interest 
awakened,  for  the  old  father  and  his  son  were  both  on 
their  knees  pleading  for  mercy  with  all  their  might,  with- 
out any  invitation  from  us.  They  gathered  around  and 
soon  there  were  two  more  happy  ones  that  joined  our 
band.  That  was  a  happy  company  indeed. 

The  lady  of  the  house,  although  a  Christian,  had 
never  believed  in  shouting.  The  old  man  that  was  con- 
verted was  her  father  and  the  young  man  her  brother, 
so  she  was  extremely  happy  this  night.  She  stood  up  and 
said,  "  Dear  Christian  friends,  I  never  did  believe  in  shout- 
ing, for  I  thought  it  was  all  put  on,  as  they  say  but  I  do 
believe  in  shouting  now,  for  I  feel  like  it  myself;  Glory  to 
God !  "  And  she  clapped  her  hands  and  shouted  at  the  top 
of  her  voice.  In  fact,  we  all  felt  like  shouting,  and  done 
so,  too. 

At  another  cottage  meeting  five  young  ladies  attended 
the  meeting  for  the  first  time.  We  had  another  double 
meeting.  When  I  began  the  second  meeting  I  felt  I  must 
speak  to  those  young  people.  So  I  arose  and  went  to 
them,  and  soon  as  I  would  speak  to  one  the  tears  would 
come,  and  when  I  had  spoken  to  the  last  one  we  all 
knelt  down  with  the  rest  of  the  company,  for  they  had 
not  knelt  during  prayer.  But,  when  they  bowed  before 
the  Lord,  it  seemed  as  though  the  very  windows  of 
heaven  were  opened  and  showers  fell  upon  us.  The  good 
brother  that  was  praying,  when  these  five  ladies  knelt 
down,  came  across  the  room  on  his  knees  while  praying. 
The  place  was  shaken  with  the  power  of  God.  We  had 
many  such  meetings. 


41 

During  some  of  these  meetings  some  very; timid  Chris- 
tians got  so  that  they  could  pray  and  speak  and  shout  as 
the  boldest  of  them,  and  all  became  so  intensely  interested 
that  a  meeting  five  miles  away  would  be  attended  by 
those  Christian  people,  even  if  they  had  to  walk.  Among 
them  one  sister,  (whose  husband  had  been  lately  con- 
verted,) and  her  family,  have  been  known  to  go  five  miles, 
and  walk  every  step  of  the  way  to  get  to  an  evening 
meeting  with  God's  people. 


42 


MY  EFFORTS  TO  EVANGELIZE  GRAVES. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

The  Graves  appointment  was  one  of  the  poorest  on 
the  circuit.  As  stated  previously,  the  people  did  not  go  to 
church.  I  went  to  Graves  once  in  two  weeks,  enduring 
all  sort  of  fatigue  to  get  there.  Sometimes  the  roads  were 
so  bad  I  was  completely  tired  out  by  the  time  I  reached 
Graves.  I  used  to  go  across  lots  and  over  the  hills  and 
through  the  woods  about  seven  miles,  and  to  find  no  one 
out  to  church.  I  used  to  open  the  school-house,  and  find- 
the  key,  which  sometimes  necessitated  my  chasing  over 
the  town  to  even  get  track  of  it,  build  the  fire  and  ring 
the  bell,  and  then  stand  at  the  window  and  watch  for 
someone  to  come.  More  times  I  used  to  watch  in  vain 
than  with  any  degree  of  satisfaction,  during  the  first  six 
months  of  the  year.  After  the  revival  fire  had  spread 
pretty  much  all  over  the  circuit,  and  I  had  finished  up  at 
other  points,  I  thought  I  would  try  and  hold  a  meeting  in 


43 

Graves.  I  planned  for  a  big  effort,  but  I  had  no  one  else 
that  had  faith  enough  to  even  attend  the  meetings.  I 
could  not  get  any  of  the  members  of  the  church  to  consent 
to  go  to  Graves  to  help  me.  They  had  no  faith  and 
no  desire.  Everybody,  for  miles  around,  seemed  to  think 
that  Graves  was  a  modern  Sodom,  and  I  do  not  know 
but  some  even  expected  to  hear  that  fire  and  brimstone 
had  destroyed  the  place.  Some  complained  because  I 
went  there.  I  concluded  to  go  in  the  name  of  the  Lord, 
and  do  what  I  could  for  that  people. 

I  announced  meetings  in  Graves  and  started  in  the 
very  next  night.  Very  few  came,  and  I  had  to  sing  and 
pray  and  speak  for  the  entertainment  of  the  few  present. 
I  could  not  get  them  out  for  evening  meetings,  so  I  tried  a 
day  meeting,  in  the  morning,  and  then  an  afternoon  meet- 
ing, and  all  to  no  purpose.  One  afternoon  three  ladies 
came  out  to  see  and  to  hear.  So  I  held  a  regular  service 
and  preached  to  them  the  best  I  could.  That  was 
the  only  day  service  that  I  had  with  anyone  else  than 
myself  present.  All  the  meetings  were  "close  communion," 
as  I  had  it  all  to  myself.  I  would  go  and  open  the  house, 
and  ring  the  bell,  and  when  it  was  time  for  the  meeting, 
I  would  sing  and  pray  and  go  my  way  until  the 
next  appointment.  I  went  from  house-to-house  to 
invite  them  out  to  meeting,  and  they  all  had  some 
excuse.  I  tried  to  talk  to  them,  and  they  would 
only  laugh  at  me.  It  was  impossible  to  draw  them  out 
in  conversation  on  the  question  of  religion.  I  tried  to 
pray  with  them,  but  I  could  not  feel  much  spirit  in  the 
effort,  and  the  heavens  seemed  as  brass  over  my  head.  I 


44 

was  discouraged  and  disheartened,  and  finally  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  it  was  no  use  to  build  a  fire,  and  open 
the  house,  just  for  myself.  So  during  the  last  few  days  of 
the  meetings,  I  went  to  the  school-house  at  the  appointed 
time,  and  knelt  down  behind  the  building  and  prayed  for 
that  people. 

During  the  meetings,  (if  you  could  call  them  meetings,) 
I  used  to  go  into  the  store  quite  frequently,  as  I  stayed 
most  of  the  time  with  the  merchant ;  and  there  they  used 
to  swear  "by  rule,"  as  they  say.  I  know  some  of  them 
would  swear  purposely  to  annoy  me.  I  used  to  feel  like 
crying,  and  then  again  I  would  think  that  it  was  because 
I  was  such  a  poor  Methodist  preacher,  that  I  was  not 
worthy  of  anything  better.  If  I  was  a  better  and  more 
worthy  preacher  they  would  respect  me.  After  coming  to 
such  a  conclusion,  I  would  take  it  as  my  just  dues  and  try 
to  feel  contented  with  it.  But  some  would  say,  "  why  did 
you  go  in  there ?  What  made  you  stay  there?"  It  seemed 
as  though  the  more  they  ill-treated  me  the  more  I  wanted 
to  be  there.  The  merchant  dare  not  say  anything  to 
them,  and  it  would  not  have  done  any  good  for  me  to 
open  my  mouth  there.  One  day  when  the  merchant  and 
I  were  alone,  I  asked  him  if  I  could  tack  up  one  of  the 
commandments  on  the  side  of  the  store  back  of  the  stove. 
He  gave  me  the  permission  to  do  so  and  furnished  a  sheet 
of  light-colored  paper,  and  I  printed  on  it,  as  best  I  could, 
with  ink  and  pencil,  the  commandment  against  swearing, 
and  tacked  it  upon  the  wall.  After  that,  especially  if  I 
was  in  there,  if  anyone  would  swear,  someone  would 
point  to  the  notice  on  the  wall,  and  then  they  would  do 


THE  GRAVES  SCHOOL-HOUSE. 


47 

more  swearing  than  ever  in  their  surprise.  It  sometimes 
made  me  almost  ashamed  that  I  had  tacked  it  up,  for 
they  seemed  to  turn  and  rend  me.  All  this  time  I  was  try- 
ing to  hold  meeting  in  Graves  with  my  hands  and  feet 
tied.  After  two  weeks  of  my  own  revival  I  stopped  what 
I  had  even  started,  if  there  was  anything  to  stop.  I  had 
prayed  for  them  and  had  tried  to  talk  with  them  and, 
having  done  all  I  could,  I  was  confident  that  my  object 
was  pure,  and  that  I  was  not  to  be  blamed  so  much  for  my 
seeming  failure. 

And,  yet,  I  did  take  all  of  the  blame  myself.  Having 
failed  I  thought  that  the  whole  fault  was  with  me,  and 
that  God  had  forsaken  me,  and  that  I  was  not  worthy 
to  be  a  minister.  It  seemed  to  me  that  if  God  cared  for 
me,  and  I  was  his  servant,  that  he  would  not  let  me  be  de- 
feated so  utterly.  I  hung  my  "harp  upon  the  willows" 
and  sat  down  and  wept.  I  thought  that  when  God 
would  not  help  me  there  was  no  use  in  my  trying  to  be  a 
preacher,  so  I  was  ready  to  give  up  the  work.  I  went  to 
Graves  with  my  head  up,  and  my  heart  full  of  confidence 
in  a  certain  and  easy  victory  over  old  Jericho,  and  I  came 
back  from  there  with  my  head  under  my  arm  and  my 
heart  down  in  my  boots,  and  no  sign  of  a  victory.  I 
had  got  to  take  thirteen  trips  around  the  city,  and  the 
seven  days  of  marching  with  the  ridicule  of  Jericho  and 
then  shout  and  see  the  walls  fall  down,  instead  of  being 
made  strong  enough  to  pull  down  the  walls  with  my  own 
hands.  All  of  these  things  I  had  to  learn. 

I  always  called  that  meeting  my  own  revival,  for  it 
seemed  that  I  was  going  alone ;  and,  then  too,  I  accom- 


48 

plished  not  a  thing  of  myself.  My  prayers,  however,  God 
heard,  and  in  time  were  answered  to  the  glory  of  God  and 
the  joy  of  my  own  heart. 


49 


THE     SUNDAY      SCHOOL     ORGANIZED     AT     THE 
GRAVES'  APPOINTMENT. 

CHAPTER    VH. 

Graves  had  no  Sunday-school  nor  anything  else  very 
religious,  not  even  a  collection.  So  one  day  in  the  spring, 
when  the  roads  had  settled  a  little,  some  of  the  young 
people  came  to  church,  so  I  thought  I  would  organize  a 
Sunday-school.  We  put  a  young  man  in  for  superintend- 
ent, who  of  course  was  "not  a  Christian,"  as  some  one 
said  to  me  afterwards,  in  surprise  at  what  I  had  done. 
Well!  The  next  time  that  I  came  to  preach,  which  was 
two  weeks  after,  I  learned  that  the  Sunday-school  died 
the  preceeding  Sabbath  without  even  a  dose  of  patent 
medicine  to  help  it,  nor  even  a  prayer  at  the  death  and 
funeral  of  the  same.  So  things  were  just  the  same  as 
they  had  been  before.  The  school  did  not  live  long  enough 
to  interest  anybody,  and  consequently  was  not  missed 
when  it  died,  poor  thing.  A  few  weeks  after  another  one 


50 

was  organized,  and  it  was  sickly  when  born,  and  soon 
died  of  heart  disease.  It  only  lived  about  ten  days  or  so, 
and  died  for  want  of  breath,  poor  thing.  So  when  I  came 
around  afterwards  to  preach  I  heard  strains  of  music 
down  in  the  grove,  where  the  cornet  band  had  met  to  dis- 
course music  to  please  the  dancers,  as  well  as  other  peo- 
ple, and  the  remains  of  the  poor  Sunday-school  was  down 
there  too.  Of  course  there  was  no  preaching  that  day, 
but,  with  a  heavy  heart  I  went  on  my  way  to  the  next 
appointment  with  the  music  of  the  band  and  the  shouts 
and  laughter  of  the  people  echoing  in  my  ears  for  half  a 
mile  or  more  on  my  way. 

Later  in  the  season  a  man  came  to  me  and  said, "  Elder, 
why  don't  you  start  a  Sunday-school  here  ?  "  Well,  I  said, 
I  have  started  the  school  twice,  and  it  went  down  and 
out  each  time;  but,  if  you  will  agree  to  help  me,  I  will  try 
again.  You  go  and  tell  the  children  and  the  people  that 
we  will  organize  a  Sunday-school  next  time  I  preach  here. 
He  agreed  to  do  it,  and  I  went  my  way.  At  my  next  ap- 
pointment there  were  twelve,  all  told,  present,  including 
one  old  maid,  one  old  woman  and  the  man  who  wanted 
the  Sunday-school.  So  I  organized  a  Sunday-school  and 
we  put  the  man  in  for  superintendent.  He  did  not  know 
anything  about  conducting  a  school,  so  I  wrote  out  a  pro- 
gramme and  it  was  tacked  up  in  the  school-house  where 
all  could  read  it.  That  was  the  beginning  of  better  days 
in  Graves.  Of  course  we  only  had  prayer  once  in  two 
weeks  in  the  Sunday-school,  and  that  was  when  I  was 
there,  so  it  could  live  by  drawing  a  breath  once  in  two 
weeks,  if  not  oftener.  It  soon  became  known  at  the  other 


51 

appointments  that  I  had  started  a  Sunday-school  in 
Graves,  and  put  in  a  wicked  sinner  and  a  man  that  went 
to  dances  as  superintendent.  Of  course  my  cold  friend,  the 
local  preacher,  and  some  others  had  a  great  deal  to  say 
about  it.  Some  even  came  to  me  and  talked  about  it. 
My  only  reply  to  them  was,  that  if  they  could  find  any 
passage  of  scripture  that  forbid  a  poor  sinner  the  privi- 
lege of  studying  the  Bible  or  helping  others  to  study  it,  I 
would  stand  condemned. 

The  very  ones  that  stood  ready  to  find  fault  with  me 
about  an  ungodly  superintendent  would  not  go  and  take 
charge  of  the  work  there.  They  had  no  earthly  business 
in  the  church  or  out  of  it,  but  to  stand  around  and  growl 
at  other  folks  for  doing  the  best  they  could.  Some  one 
ought  to  invent  a  safety-valve  for  such  mouths.  They 
only  had  prayer  of  course,  once  in  two  weeks,  and  that 
was  when  I  was  there  for  my  regular  appointment.  On 
the  printed  programme  I  had  tacked  up  for  the  use  of  the 
superintendent  was  first,  singing;  second  prayer.  The 
children  used  to  read  it  and  then  call  the  attention  of  the 
superintendent  to  the  omission  of  prayer,  which  kept  the 
man  in  a  state  of  uneasiness  most  of  the  time,  because  he 
could  not  pray.  They  would  run  up  after  Sunday-school 
was  closed  and  say:  "You  skipped  one  of  those,"  and 
"  You  forgot  to  pray."  That  Sunday-school  lived,  thank 
the  Lord.  It  was  a  healthy  child.  The  work  was  grow- 
ing fast  and  the  numbers  increased  rapidly. 

A  matter  happened  about  this  time  that  gave  a  won- 
derful uplift  to  the  school  and  the  community,  too.  It 
was  this :  A  picnic  was  proposed  by  myself  for  the  whole 


52 

charge.  A  union  picnic.  There  were  five  schools  on  the 
charge.  One  called  a  union  school.  I  proposed  the  mat- 
ter in  the  school  at  Yale,  as  that  was  headquarters.  The 
school  agreed  to  it,  except  the  local  preacher,  and  a  com- 
mittee was  appointed  to  invite  the  other  schools  and  the 
time  was  fixed  and  the  place  chosen.  I  was  selected  as 
one  of  the  committee.  I  then  went  to  graves  to  spur  up 
my  new  Sunday-school  to  go  to  a  picnic.  They  were  ready 
to  accept  and  join  in  the  festivities.  We  had  decided  in 
the  arrangements  to  have  the  band  from  Graves  attend 
the  picnic,  too.  So  the  Graves' school  concluded  to  accom- 
pany the  band  to  the  grove.  They  had  no  banners  for  the 
school,  so  I  secured  some  muslin  and  a  carpenter  made 
two  poles,  and  I  painted  two  nice  mottoes,  one  for  the 
little  children,  and  one  for  the  whole  school.  Each  school 
was  to  furnish  a  part  of  the  programme.  So  the  Graves 
people  were  taking  the  matter  in  hand  to  furnish  some 
speaking  and  singing,  etc.  It  was  the  first  time  that  any 
of  the  children  had  taken  part  in  anything  connected  with 
a  Sabbath-school,  so  they  went  to  work  with  a  will  for 
fear  they  would  not  appear  as  well  as  the  other  schools. 

In  the  meantime,  the  local  preacher  had  gone  to  one 
of  the  other  schools  we  were  to  invite — the  union  school — 
and  persuaded  one  of  his  friends  to  propose  that  they  get 
up  a  union  picnic  and  invite  the  other  schools  to  it,  and 
they  carried  the  measure  and  fixed  the  time  on  the  day 
we  had  selected  and  the  place,  and  sent  invitations  to  the 
school  at  Yale  and  at  Graves  and  took  the  whole  matter 
out  of  the  hands  of  the  committee  and  of  the  Yale  Sunday- 
school.  The  people  at  Graves  were  indignant  over  the 


58 

turn  of  affairs  and  said  they  would  not  go,  and  the  band 
said  they  would  not  go  either.  The  Yale  school  did  not 
care  much  about  it.  I  did  not  care,  only  it  was  a  case  of 
well-settled  meanness.  So  I  said  to  the  people  of  Graves 
we  must  all  go.  Everybody  turn  out  and  make  a  show. 
Let  people  know  that  there  is  something  left  yet  in  Graves 
worth  looking  after.  So  they  went  to  work  harder  than 
ever.  I  was  entirely  set  aside  and  left  out  altogether  and 
that  troubled  the  people  of  Graves  more  than  anything 
else.  But  I  told  them  that  I  did  not  care. 

When  the  day  came  for  the  picnic  we  had  a  great 
crowd  of  people  in  Graves  ;  everybody  turned  out  far  and 
near,  and  we  had  a  long  procession.  The  band  took  the 
lead  with  the  flag  flying  over  their  heads  and  two  banners 
in  the  procession.  We  started  so  as  to  be  there  on  time, 
but  when  we  came  to  the  grove  they  had  commenced  the 
exercises  without  us,  thinking  we  would  not  amount  to 
much.  The  band  boys  were  angry,  so  they  struck  up  a 
lively  tune  and  we  went  into  the  grove  and  marched  into 
the  crowd,  which  of  course  stopped  the  programme,  and 
stopped  one  of  the  speakers  in  the  middle  of  a  piece.  It 
took  some  time  to  get  things  quiet  again  after  such 
a  break.  The  local  preacher  looked  quite  uneasy.  The 
largest  crowd  of  the  day  came  from  Graves.  Their  part 
of  the  programme  was  as  good  and  as  well  rendered  as 
any  of  those  that  tried  to  look  down  on  the  people  from 
Graves. 

The  people  felt  bad.  It  was  not  treating  them  as 
Christian  people  ought  to  have  treated  sinners  even,  of 
the  worst  sort ;  they  tried  to  be  cheerful  and  enjoy  them- 


54 

selves,  but  they  could  not  forget  the  way  they  had  used 
me.  They  went  home  thinking  that  the  preacher  thought 
more  of  them  than  the  rest  of  the  church  did,  (although 
not  many  of  the  members,  if  any.  save  one  family  approved 
of  the  course  taken  by  the  Union  Sunday-school,)  and  that 
the  Sunday-school  in  Graves  should  be  the  best  school  on 
the  charge.  The  next  Sabbath  the  House  was  full  for  Sun- 
day-school. Parents  went  to  school,  children  went,  and 
even  Catholics  came  to  the  school.  They  were  going  to 
stand  by  the  preacher  now,  he  had  stood  by  them  for  half 
a  year,  and  now  they  are  going  to  have  a  different  state 
of  things  in  graves.  In  a  short  time  the  school  was  by  a 
considerable  the  largest  school  on  the  charge. 

The  superintendent  was  a  sinner  too,  and  running  the 
most  interesting  school  anywhere  in  that  region. 

Sometime  late  in  the  summer  I  held  a  grove  meeting, 
and  the  superintendent  was  there.  He  generally  went  to 
church  after  he  took  charge  of  the  Sunday-school.  (We 
will  call  him  Johnson,  although  that  was  not  his  real 
name,  for  I  would  not  disclose  the  name.) 

I  could  not  let  Johnson  alone  after  the  Sunday-school 
was  organized.  I  was  ever  preaching  to  him,  without  in- 
tending to  do  anything  of  the  kind.  I  could  never  be  with 
him  five  minutes  that  I  was  not  talking  to  him  about  his 
sinful  life.  Sometimes  he  would  go  with  me  to  my  even- 
ing appointment,  and  he  would  declare  that  I  was  preach- 
ing at  him  all  the  while  during  the  meeting,  which,  of  a 
truth,  I  had  not  thought  of  doing.  I  could  not  let  him 
alone,  for  it  seemed  to  me  that  he  must  be  converted. 

So,  when  he  came  to  the  grove  meeting,  he  was  hit  so 


55 

hard  that  he  thought  it  about  time  to  get  out  of  the  way 
of  the  sword  of  the  spirit,  so,  when  I  was  through  preach- 
ing on  the  Saturday  afternoon  of  the  meeting,  he  got  up 
and  burst  into  tears  and  begged  of  us  to  pray  for  him. 
We  had  a  glorious  meeting,  and  I  was  happy,  and  so  was 
Johnson,  too.  Now,  I  said  to  him,  we  will  have  prayer  in 
Sunday-school  every  Sunday ;  but  he  felt  so  weak  that  he 
tried  to  beg  off,  but  I  said  to  him,  you  just  open  school 
with  prayer  tomorrow  and  have  it  over  with  right  oif. 
He  went  home  that  night  to  get  ready  for  Sunday-school. 
The  next  day  was  the  Sabbath.  We  had  a  good  meeting 
but  my  thoughts  were  constantly  turning  to  the  Sabbath- 
school  and  to  Johnson. 

During  the  afternoon  prayer-meeting  Johnson  came 
and  was  so  eager  to  let  me  know  that  he  had  prayer  in 
Sunday-school  that  day,  that  he  came  right  through  the 
crowd  and  straight  up  to  me  and  whispered  it  in  my  ear, 
and  then  we  praised  the  Lord. 


56 


HOW  I  GAVE  UP  THE  WORK. 

CHAPTER    YIII. 

I  had  a  habit  of  blaming  myself  for  every  little  failure 
on  the  charge.  And  when  I  felt  condemned  for  anything, 
then  I  was  sure  to  declare  myself  unfit  for  the  ministry. 
The  local  preacher  did  not  seem  to  help  me  any,  but  rather 
hinder  me  in  my  work.  He  would  not  attend  his  own 
church  but  would  get  up  a  big  ox  load  of  people  and  go 
some  where  else  to  church,  either  to  the  Protestant  church 
or  the  Seventh  Day  Baptist  church  or  even  the  Free- 
Methodist  church.  I  began  to  think  that  perhaps  it  was 
all  my  fault  and  that  I  must  be  wrong.  So  I  thought  my 
work  must  be  done.  I  had  some  great  struggles  to  settle 
the  question  beyond  any  new  doubt  that  might  arise 
from  some  new  circumstances  that  I  was  truly  called  to 
the  ministry.  Some  times  I  would  pray  for  God  to  let 
me  know,  if  I  was  called  to  that  work,  by  letting  me  have 
a  good  time  on  the  next  Sabbath  day  when  I  went  to 


57 

preach.  And  God  always  gave  me  a  great  blessing  at 
such  times.  So  after  a  while  I  was  not  tempted  by  the 
Devil  upon  my  call  to  the  ministry.  Then  my  temptations 
took  a  new  form.  I  was  called  to  the  work,  but  had  I  not 
finished  my  work  and  was  not  the  state  of  the  work 
such  that  I  might  well  think  my  work  done,  and  hence,  I 
could  go  at  some  other  business?  And,  yet,  while  I  was 
made  to  see  things  in  such  a  state,  in  fact,  the  work  was 
in  a  blaze  at  most  of  the  appointments.  The  Graves' 
Sunday-school  was  in  a  flourishing  condition  and  congre- 
gations were  good  at  every  place.  But  the  Devil  made 
me  think  that  because  that  local  preacher  would  not 
come  to  church  and  stand  by  me  that  my  work  was  all 
done  up  in  shape,  and  I  could  go.  One  Sunday  just  before 
I  had  concluded  that  my  work  was  done  the  local  preacher 
and  another  man  contradicted  me  after  my  sermon  on  a 
trivial  point  in  regard  to  Zacheus  climbing  a  sycamore 
tree  to  see  the  Lord  pass  by.  They  did  not  care  so  much 
about  the  point  in  question  as  they  did  the  truth  that  I 
hooked  on  to  that  point.  If  they  could  break  that  point 
down  the  truth  that  came  after  it  they  thought  would  be 
weakened.  What  I  had  said  was  the  eternal  truth  and  I 
had  not  intended  any  personality,  and  did  not  know  that 
I  had  hit  them  until  they  began  to  walk  lame  and  flop  one 
wing.  Everybody  else  knew  how  bad  they  were  too  and 
applied  the  truth  to  them  and  stood  up  for  me.  Well,  I 
made  up  my  mind  that  the  Lord  had  got  through  with 
me  and  my  work  was  done,  and  so  one  morning  I  told 
the  lady  I  boarded  with  that  I  was  going  to  stop  preach- 
ing. She  cried  and  begged  of  me  not  to  give  up.  But  I 


58 

had  made  up  my  mind,  and  I  was  going  to  know  nothing 
but  that  determination  henceforth.  So  I  left  my  things 
there  until  I  could  find  some  employment.  I  went  to  the 
city  and  obtained  a  job  with  a  friend  of  mine,  securing 
articles  for  plating.  I  felt  miserable  and  condemned. 
Something  kept  me  thinking  I  was  a  Methodist  preacher, 
and  I  was  trying  to  forget  it.  People  I  knew  would  call 
me  elder  and  that  bothered  me,  for  I  was  not  going  to  be 
a  preacher  any  longer.  I  finally  bought  a  cigar  and  began 
to  smoke,  as  I  started  out  in  the  country,  so  as  to  divest 
myself  of  any  appearance  of  a  minister.  I  tried  to  feel 
mean  and  think  mean  but  it  was  hard  work. 

When  I  would  see  some  one  coming,  I  would,  before  I 
thought,  take  my  cigar  out  of  my  mouth  lest  they  would 
see  a  preacher  smoking,  and  then  I  would  say  I  am  not  a 
preacher,  and  put  it  back  in  my  mouth. 

I  went  to  a  house  and  knocked  at  the  door,  and  I  tried 
to  think  I  was  an  agent  on  the  road,  but  something  would 
tell  me  I  stood  on  those  steps  a  Methodist  preacher. 
When  I  got  into  the  house  it  was  hard  work  to  keep  from 
saying  something  religious.  I  tried  to  obtain  spoons  and 
knives  and  forks  for  plating,  but  with  such  a  struggle  I 
was  not  fit  to  solicit  anything  from  anyone.  I  tramped 
all  day  and  obtained  nothing  for  my  toil.  I  was  sick, 
miserable  and  defeated.  I  thought  it  strange  that,  if  my 
work  was  done  in  the  gospel,  the  Lord  would  defeat  me 
in  everything  else.  I  finally  came  back  to  my  boarding 
place  after  three  days,  and  yet  I  had  not  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  I  had  better  go  to  preaching  again.  I  sat  in 
my  room  fighting  against  conviction  for  some  time,  and 


69 

I  kept  saying  I  will  not  preach  any  more.  While  I  was 
thus  resolving  in  my  mind  some  wondrous  power  took 
hold  of  me,  and  I  began  to  weep.  It  came  like  a  thunder- 
bolt, and  yet  after  weeping,  I  said  I  will  not  preach  again. 
At  evening  the  class-leader  and  his  wife  and  his  son 
and  wife  came  down.  They  had  heard  that  I  was  dis- 
couraged and  was  going  to  give  up  the  ministry.  The 
more  they  talked  to  me  the  more  I  resolved  to  preach  to 
them  no  more.  Finally  they  wanted  me  to  go  home  with 
them,  and  I  said  no.  For  I  was  not  a  Methodist  preacher 
now,  and  it  would  be  no  use  to  go.  They  got  my  hat  and 
put  it  on  my  head  and  lifted  me  into  the  wagon  and  took 
me  home  with  them  in  spite  of  my  refusals.  After  they 
had  talked  a  while  they  concluded  that  I  had  better  go  to 
bed  and  rest  over  it.  So  the  class-leader  sang  a  hymn  and 
called  on  me  to  pray,  but  I  refused  to  pray ;  so  they  knelt 
down  and  prayed  for  me,  and  I  began  to  realize  how 
awful  my  sin,  if  I  should  drive  the  spirit  from  my  heart, 
who  had  come  to  me  so  tenderly  and  lovingly  and  staid 
with  me  when  I  was  trying  to  run  away  from  my  duty. 
And  then  the  thought  that  I  had  refused  to  pray  made  me 
feel  bad,  and  I  said  on  my  knees :  Lord,  I  will  obey !  I 
then  offered  prayer  before  I  arose.  The  struggle  was  over, 
and  I  got  hold  of  God  by  a  strong  grip  and  held  on  while 
God  put  his  arms  of  love  about  me  and  blessed  me.  I,  like 
Jonah,  had  three  miserable  days.  I  was  not  in  the  whale's 
belly,  but  if  Jonah  felt  any  worse  than  I  did,  he  certainly 
had  a  hard  time  of  it.  And  I  do  not  wonder  that  he 
started  from  the  belly  of  the  whale  straight  for  Nineveh. 
He  got  all  he  wanted.  I  had  all  I  wanted  of  disobedience. 


60 

I  left  Tuesday,  and  when  Sunday  came  I  was  in  my  place 
to  preach  the  gospel  as  usual,  and  the  Lord  blessed  me, 
too.  How  far  I  went  from  God  in  my  rebellion !  and  yet 
I  was  back  again  before  Sunday.  The  Lord  had  mercy  on 
me.  The  rest  of  my  year  was  full  of  sunshine,  and  bless- 
ings came  like  rain  drops. 


61 


GOING  TO  A   "GREENBACK"  MEETING. 

CHAPTER  IX. 

While  I  was  engaged  in  work  for  the  Sabbath-school 
at  Graves  and  doing  pastoral  visiting,  I  was  invited  to 
attend  a  Greenback  meeting  which  was  to  be  held  in  a 
neighboring  town  of  considerable  size.  The  gentleman 
who  invited  me  said  that  I  could  ride  down  and  back  with 
him,  so  I  accepted  the  invitation.  Many  loads  went  from 
Graves  to  the  meeting,  together  with  the  band.  The 
band  was  a  new  band  about  a  year  old,  and  could  play 
well. 

The  meeting  was  the  first  one  that  the  Greenbackers 
had  in  that  vicinity  and  many  bands  and  many  people 
were  present.  After  the  meeting  was  over  the  band  from 
Graves  was  led  about  town  to  play  for  the  benefit  of  the 
whisky  men  and  saloon-keepers.  I  went  to  the  hotel 
where  the  gentleman  who  brought  me  put  up  his  team 
and  waited  for  him.  He  came  late  and  had  friends  with 


62 

him  who  came  that  night  on  the  train  and  who  expected 
to  go  out  with  him.  He  informed  me  that  he  would  be 
unable  to  take  me  and  thought  that  I  could  get  a  ride 
with  some  one  else.  But  there  seemed  to  be  no  chance  left 
for  me  but  the  big  band-wagon.  The  driver  said  that  I 
could  ride  as  well  as  not.  Sol  waited  for  the  band-wagon. 
The  band  boys  seemed  about  ready  to  go  too.  Then  some 
one  proposed  that  the  band  should  go  over  the  town  and 
play  for  the  hotels  and  saloons  before  going  home.  Some 
of  them  were  drinking  quite  freely,  too,  and  all  of  them 
were  smoking.  Away  they  went  to  play  on  the  streets 
and  in  the  hotels  and  saloons.  At  everyplace  they  stopped 
the  proprietor  treated  them  to  whiskey,  beer  and  cigars. 
It  took  until  after  midnight  to  go  around.  All  of  this 
time  I  was  waiting  at  the  hotel  for  the  wagon  to  start. 
When  the  boys  came  back  to  the  starting  place  some  were 
very  noisy  and  others  very  stupid,  and  the  sober  ones  had 
to  work  for  an  hour  or  more  to  get  the  boys  to  load  up 
for  home.  I  was  so  ashamed  of  my  company,  and,  if  I 
had  been  in  the  possession  of  money  enough  to  pay  my 
expenses  I  would  have  staid  there  all  night  than  be  in  such 
a  noisy,  swearing  crowd.  I  would  have  walked  home,  but 
it  was  seven  miles,  or  more,  and  the  roads  were  quite 
muddy,  and  it  was  a  very  dark  night.  So  when  the 
wagon  was  ready  to  start  a  young  Methodist  preacher 
was  one  of  the  crew .  I  pulled  my  hat  down  over  my  face 
as  far  as  possible  and  humped  my  back  and  took  a  seat 
in  the  back  end  of  the  wagon  and  behind  the  one  next  in 
front  of  me,  so  as  to  not  be  where  the  light  from  the  torch 
in  the  front  of  the  wagon  would  show  my  face  to  anyone. 


63 

I  hated  myself  and  all  about  me.  And  I  thought,  as 
I  was  riding  there,  now  everybody  will  hear  of  this,  and 
that  will  be  the  end  of  my  work  as  a  Methodist  preacher. 
Such  language  would  hardly  become  a  devil,  as  I  heard 
that  night.  They  swore  and  talked  filthy  and  sang  songs 
and  cracked  jokes,  and  anything  else  that  suited  their 
fancy  was  also  added.  We  had  to  go  through  the  place  I 
called  headquarters  in  order  to  reach  Graves,  where  I  was 
laboring  then.  When  we  went  through  Yale  they  made 
all  the  noise  that  it  was  possible  to  make.  Those  full  of 
whiskey  and  beer  yelled  like  loons. 

I  thought  to  myself  what  will  the  people  say  and  the 
members  of  the  church  when  they  hear  that  the  pastor  of 
the  M.  E.  Church  was  one  of  the  number  that  went 
through  town  making  such  a  noise  in  the  small  hours  of 
the  night.  I  prayed  God  to  forgive  me  for  my  foolishness. 
Why  did  not  I  borrow  some  money  and  stay  at  the  hotel 
all  night;  or  why  did  not  I  sleep  under  the  fence  some 
where?  I  did  think  some  of  getting  off,  and  then,  if  I  did, 
I  was  sure  that  they  would  tell  about  me  being  one  of 
their  number,  and,  as  I  was  spoiled  for  a  Methodist  now, 
I  might  as  well  ride  with  them  as  go  "afoot." 

Some  of  those  in  the  front  of  the  wagon  did  not  know 
for  a  long  time  that  the  elder  was  in  the  load,  but  some 
sudden  jerk  of  the  wagon  threw  me  into  the  light,  and 
when  they  saw  me  one  of  them  exclaimed  with  a  terrible 
oath  that  the  elder  was  in  the  wagon.  Others  replied 
with  great  oaths  in  astonishment  at  the  new  discovery 
made,  and  looked  to  see  whether  it  was  so  or  not. 

I  hung  my  head  and  hid  behind  my  nearest  neighbor, 


64 

who,  by  the  way,  was  a  sober  man  and  a  true  friend  to 
me.  I  was  ready  to  give  up  all,  for  I  thought  there  was 
no  use  of  my  trying  to  even  be  a  Christian  any  longer. 

The  swearing  and  songs  and  talk  went  on  just  as  be- 
fore, and  I  thought  it  made  no  difference  now  for  I  was 
not  a  Methodist  preacher  any  longer,  so  let  them  swear. 
It  seemed  as  though  all  the  angels  in  heaven  were  ashamed 
of  me,  and  that  Christ,  my  Savior,  was  blushing  in  shame 
for  me,  who  had  brought  a  reproach  upon  the  ministry 
and  the  whole  church. 

I  thought  of  the  converts  and  what  they  would  say 
about  my  kind  of  company.  When  we  finally  reached  our 
destination,  I  jumped  out  and  was  crawling  off  in  the 
darkness  to  get  out  of  sight  as  soon  as  possible,  when  the 
merchant,  who  rode  next  to  me  and  behind  whom  I  kept 
hid  most  of  the  journey,  overtook  me,  and  wanted  to 
know  where  I  was  going.  I  told  him  I  did  not  know. 
He  took  me  by  the  arm  and  said  "you  go  and  stay  with 
me  tonight."  So  I  went  to  his  house  and  went  to  bed, 
but  not  much  sleep  for  me  that  night,  that  is,  what 
was  left  of  it. 

The  next  band-meeting  was  a  few  nights  after  my 
sorry  time;  and  when  they  met,  they  discussed  the  affair 
and  came  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  time  to  have  a 
change  of  the  programme.  So  they  made  some  new  laws 
that  night.  One  of  the  rules  was  that  they  would  not 
play  for  a  hotel  or  a  saloon  again ;  and  another  one  was 
that  whenever  they  played  away  from  home  again  they 
were  to  come  right  home  as  soon  as  their  engagement 
should  be  filled ;  andthe  other  one  was  that  the  members 


65 

of  the  band  should  use  no  profane  or  obscene  language  or 
get  drunk  under  a  fine  of  five  dollars  for  every  offense. 

Then  they  came  to  me  and  told  me  what  they  had 
done. 

I  found  out  afterwards  that  I  was  safe  enough  as  to 
my  reputation,  for  they  were  all  too  much  ashamed  of 
themselves  to  ever  mention  the  matter  to  anyone,  and  I 
certainly  had  no  intention  of  telling  anyone;  and  as  far  as 
I  know  no  person  outside  of  the  band  and  myself  ever 
knew  of  my  experiences  that  night,  even  while  I  was  on 
the  charge. 

But  my  ride  reformed  the  band,  and  they  kept  the 
rules  they  had  made  as  long  as  I  had  any  knowledge  of 
the  band.  The  good  Lord  made  it  a  blessing  where  I  was 
only  looking  for  evil  to  come.  I  had  also  the  good  will 
and  friendship  of  the  whole  band  and  they  came  to  church, 
and  took  an  interest  in  helping  to  raise  my  salary.  Even 
all  things  worked  for  good. 


66 


"BRINDLE  HILL"  PRAYER  MEETING. 

CHAPTER  X. 

During  my  pastorate  on  this  first  charge,  we  were 
well-supplied  with  opportunities  to  attend  prayer-meet- 
ings. We  had  meetings  some  where  nearly  every  night  of 
the  week.  They  were  not  all  located  meetings  but  some 
were  shifted  about  within  a  radius  often  miles  or  less  and 
others  were  fixed  as  permanent  meetings.  One  of  these 
regular  appointments  was  at  the  church,  and  the  other 
one  was  on  the  summit  of  "Brindle  Hill,"  as  one  of  the 
brethren  named  it. 

This  hill  had  been  burned  over  and  it  looked  rather 
streaked,  as  the  fire  did  not  burn  the  grass  all  off  but  left 
it  in  streaks.  Where  the  fire  burned  the  grass  the  hill 
looked  brown;  so  one  of  the  brethren  named  it  "Brindle 
Hill."  On  the  top  of  this  hill  lived  an  old  couple.  In  some 
way  we  got  a  meeting  appointed  at  their  house  and  it 
stayed  there  every  week.  They  were  poor  and  old.  The 


67 

house  consisted  of  one  room  about  sixteen  by  eighteen 
feet.  It  was  not  lathed  and  plastered  either  on  the  sides 
or  over  head.  They  had  both  set  by  the  stove  day  after 
day  and  night  after  night  for  many  years  and  smoked 
their  pipes,  until  the  smoke  of  their  pipes  and  of  the  old 
broken  stove  had  blackened  the  timbers  and  boards  over- 
head as  black  as  coal  tar.  There  were  two  or  three  old 
chairs  and  two  or  three  stools,  and  an  old  square  table 
and  two  bedsteads  in  the  room.  When  we  used  to  hold  a 
meeting  there,  they  brought  in  boards  and  old  benches 
and  made  seats  of  them.  In  this  little,  old  blackened  room 
we  had  some  powerful  meetings.  During  these  meetings 
the  old  folks  were  soundly  converted  to  God.  The  old 
man  used  to  pray :  "O,  Lord ;  give  us  more  uv  yeer  love." 
For  he  had  been  tasting  in  his  old  age  the  love  of  God. 

I  used  to  like  the  meetings  very  much.  But  I  did  not 
like  the  company.  For  we  had  more  bedbugs  than  human 
beings  at  the  meeting.  In  spite  of  bedbugs  we  had  some 
meetings  when  the  people  would  shout  to  the  top  of  their 
voices  sometimes.  We  used  to  stay  there  sometimes  until 
about  midnight.  Always  after  attending  those  meetings 
I  had  to  pick  my  clothes  over,  and  I  have  often  found 
underneath  my  necktie  a  colony  of  bedbugs.  One  night  I 
was  caught  in  a  terrific  storm  while  attending  the  prayer- 
meeting.  I  could  not  possibly  get  home  that  night,  as  the 
road  was  a  bad  road,  even  in  daylight.  So  I  was  pressed 
to  stay  that  night  in  that  house,  and  preferred  bedbugs 
and  a  shelter  to  exposure  that  night.  I  stayed.  There 
were  two  beds  in  the  room.  So  when  I  got  ready  to  go 
to  bed  the  old  lady  went  out  of  doors  and  the  old  man  set 


68 

down  facing  the  fire  with  his  pipe  while  I  went  to  bed. 
Then  the  old  lady  came  in  and  they  blew  out  the  tallow 
candle  and  they  went  to  to  bed.  In  the  morning  I  stayed 
in  bed,  like  children  do,  until  breakfast  was  ready.  Then 
the  old  lady  took  the  outside  of  the  house  while  I  dressed. 
After  a  scanty  meal  I  started  on  my  way  home  not  much 
the  worse  for  my  night's  adventure  with  strange  bed- 
fellows. 

People  somehow  got  the  idea  that  the  meetings  must 
be  held  at  that  place  all  of  the  while,  and  some  even 
thought  the  meetings  were  better  there  than  elsewhere.  I 
think  they  were  about  as  good  as  any  we  had  anywhere 
on  the  charge.  I  used  to  sometimes  say  that  we  were 
nearer  heaven  when  up  on  the  old  hill.  It  was  a  delight 
to  us  to  meet  in  that  old  shanty  for  prayer.  I  have  been 
to  meetings  there  when  everyone  would  laugh  and  some- 
times shout.  I  have  even  known  them  to  lose  conscious- 
ness for  a  short  time.  One  night  a  couple  of  the  brethren 
were  so  happy  that  on  the  way  home  from  the  meeting 
in  company  with  me  they  began  to  hug  each  other,  and 
finally  lay  down  on  the  ground  and  rolled  under  an  old 
rail  fence  in  their  efforts  to  embrace  each  other  a  little 
more  closely.  We  used  to  have  all  sorts  of  people  at  the 
"  Brindle  Hill "  meeting.  The  Free  Methodist,  the  Advents, 
Methodist  Protestant  and  Methodist  Episcopal,  and 
some  that  were  not  anything.  A  Free  Methodist  man 
who  had  left  the  Methodist  church  to  join  that  Free  insti- 
tution used  to  come  to  the  meetings  and  try  to  run  a  Free 
Methodist  meeting.  He  used  to  get  down  and  pray  with 
his  hands  spread  out  and  arms  at  full  length,  and  would 


«9 

keep  them  going  like  a  bird  flopping  its  wings.  It  always 
took  him  a  long  time  to  wing  out  his  prayer.  One  night 
he  was  so  extremely  long  and  tedious  that  we  were  all 
tired  of  his  prayer,  and  no  doubt  but  the  Lord  was  weary 
of  such  illimitable  prayers,  so  we  sung  him  down  and  out. 
He  was  such  a  sweet-spirited  man,  to  take  his  word  for  it, 
and  such  a  perfect  man  and  so  perfected  in  love;  but  I 
noticed  that  after  I  started  a  hymn  in  the  midst  of  his  ex- 
tended talk,  he  was  capable  of  being  ruffled  in  spirit  as 
well  as  the  rest  of  God's  weak  creatures. 

One  would  have  thought  to  hear  him  talk  that  he  was 
so  perfect  that  nothing  could  offend  him.  But  it  was 
easier  to  offend  him  than  anyone  else.  He  could  change 
his  spiritual  thermometer  from  hot  to  cold  with  the  great- 
est of  ease,  as  though  he  were  used  to  that  trade.  No 
doubt  he  was.  When  a  man  thinks  he  has  found  a  state 
of  grace,  if  it  has  the  tendency  to  knock  all  of  the  good 
sense  out  of  him,  he  had  better  investigate  his  so-called 
state  of  grace. 

If  Christianity  does  anythingjfor  man,  it  not  only 
changes  his  operations  in  life,  but  it  also  gives  him  a  better 
and  clearer  conception  of  things,  and  especially  of  things 
relating  to  the  Christian  life.  It  proves  itself,  when 
present  in  the  heart,  by  that  consideration  it  gives  one,  of 
the  feelings  and  rights  of  others,  and  that  Christian 
charity  that  "thinketh  no  evil"  of  others,  who  claim  an 
interest  and  a  hope  in  the  merits  of  the  Redeemer  of 
mankind. 

So  when  this  man  thought  only  of  himself,  and,  like  a 
pig  getting  lengthwise  in  the  trough,  preventing  anyone 


70 

else  getting  a  mouthful,  he  wanted  to  use  all  of  the  time 
and  snatch  all  of  the  cake  from  the  table,  I  began  to  think 
that  some  of  the  lambs  needed  something  as  well  as  the 
pig,  and  so  I  started  a  lively  hymn  and  all  of  the  singers 
joined  in,  and  his  wings  dropped  to  his  side  and  his  lower 
jaw  dropped,  and  the  noise  of  the  "sounding  brass  and 
tinkling  cymbal"  ceased.  He  did  not  attend  meetings 
with  us  for  a  long  time  after  that,  if  he  ever  did.  Some 
folks  want  all  or  they  want  nothing. 

I  have  had  occasion  once  or  twice  since  then  to  sing 
down  a  windy  saint.  On  one  charge,  I  was  holding  a 
series  of  meetings  and  the  people  were  getting  very  much 
aroused  and  awakened.  There  had  been  in  the  vicinity 
of  the  church  some  years  before  a  Free  Methodist  class. 
Some  old  remnants  of  that  class  still  remained.  The  most 
of  those  left  came  to  my  meetings  and  were  getting  into 
the  work  in  good  earnest.  One  old  man  with  a  little 
show  of  learning,  and  a  poor  show  at  that,  had  been 
termed  "  leader  "  by  the  Free  Methodist.  He  looked  after 
the  Free  Methodist  flock,  what  there  was  of  it.  He  did 
not  come  to  the  meetings  for  a  long  time.  Finally  a 
prayer-meeting  one  afternoon  came  within  easy  reach  of 
this  old  "leader"  and  so  he  came.  Not  having  attended 
the  meetings  any  he  was  not  in  the  drift  of  the  work,  but 
rather  he  was  like  an  iceberg  in  a  summer  sea;  the  iceberg 
produced  an  effect  upon  the  immediate  sea,  and  in  turn 
the  sea  effected  the  iceberg,  and  as  it  is  slow  work  melting 
an  icebers,  so  we  found  it  in  this  case,  too. 

When  he  prayed  he  consumed  about  half  an  hour.  He 
was  not  asking  the  Lord  for  anything,  but  he  was  in- 


71 

structing  the  Lord  and  reciting  history  to  him.  He  told 
all  he  knew  about  Bible  history.  Among  other  things  he 
told  the  Lord  how  one  leaf  of  the  Bible  had  been  sold  for 
a  load  of  hay,  as  though  the  Lord  did  not  know  about  it. 
He  used  up  all  of  the  time  that  we  generally  allowed  for 
prayers.  So  I  changed  the  order  of  the  meeting.  Then  he 
got  up  and  began  to  reel  off  another  thousand  mile  thread, 
and  when  he  had  used  up  about  half  of  the  time  I  began 
to  sing  with  all  my  might,  and  the  thread  broke  and  that 
stopped  the  reel. 

You  get  about  half  a  dozen  such  "long-winded"  fel- 
lows together  and  you  would  need  to  begin  the  meeting 
after  breakfast  and  have  a  lunch  in  your  pocket  for  din- 
ner and  expect  a  late  supper,  if  you  staid  all  through  the 
meetidg,  and,  too,  a  man  would  want  a  prod  stuck  into 
him  every  five  minutes  to  keep  awake,  for  they  would  put 
a  maniac  to  sleep  in  ten  minutes.  Such  men  afford  us 
good  opportunities  to  cultivate  the  grace  of  patience  and 
charity,  but  patience  ceases  to  be  a  virtue  before  the  sun 
goes  down,  if  you  begin  in  the  morning  with  such  fellows. 
Such  are  some  of  the  things  that  come  along  in  the  cur- 
rent of  human  events  to  knock  off  the  rough  corners  of 
mortal  men  in  the  ministry,  and  by  friction  put  on  a  little 
of  the  shine.  So  that  "all  things  work  together  for  good," 
even  if  a  man  does  not  relish  the  thing,  for  the  bitter 
medicine  may  give  strength ;  but  then  I  would  rather  take 
the  medicine  from  choice  than  have  it  forced  down  my 
throat. 


72 


HOW  I  MADE  THE  CIRCUIT. 

CHAPTER  XI. 

I  made  my  circuit  on  foot.  When  I  went  onto  the 
circuit  I  had  a  pair  of  leaky  boots,  and  while  they 
answered  well  enough  for  the  sidewalks  in  a  village,  they 
were  of  no  very  great  use  on  the  roads  and  in  the  mud 
and  water,  if  you  desired  to  keep  your  feet  dry  and  clean. 
It  was  one  of  the  worst  winters  for  mud  and  water  I  have 
known  since  I  have  been  in  the  work,  too,  and  when  I 
started  off  for  an  exploration  on  my  charge  I  used  to  get 
my  pants  up  on  my  boot  tops  and  take  my  coat  on  my 
arm  and  my  little,  old  Bible  in  my  hand  and  a  hymn-book 
and  pick  my  way  along  the  fences  and  over  logs  and 
across  the  fields  and  through  the  woods  to  reach  my  point. 

The  Bible,  by  the  way,  was  the  first  Bible  I  ever  had. 
It  was  given  to  me  by  a  Sunday-school  teacher  as  a 
Christmas  present  on  a  tree,  when  I  was  a  little  boy.  It 


73 

cost  about  forty  cents,  as  that  is  the  price  of  the  book  as 
marked  on  the  cover ;  for  the  mark  is  there  yet. 

In  my  journeys  sometimes  it  was  necessary  to  cross 
the  road  in  order  to  proceed,  and  it  was  not  always  a 
very  pleasant  duty.  I  remember  having  on  a  pair  of  rub- 
bers once,  that  were  none  too  tight,  and  being  obliged  to 
cross  the  road  I  started  to  cross  in  a  place  that  looked 
to  be  sandy.  I  got  into  the  middle  of  the  road  and  the 
first  I  knew  I  began  to  sink  in  the  quick  sand.  I  lifted  up 
one  foot  and  the  rubber  came  off.  I  took  my  books  under 
my  arm  and  tried  to  put  my  rubber  on,  but  when  I  had  it 
on,  the  other  foot  had  gone  out  of  sight.  I  then  tried  to 
get  that  foot  out  and  the  rubber  came  off  and  so  I  had  to 
work  again  standing  on  one  foot.  I  lost  my  balance  and 
had  to  put  my  foot  down  without  the  rubber  on  in  order 
to  save  myself.  The  other  rubber  came  off  and  I  was  get- 
ting deeper  in  the  mire,  so  securing  my  rubbers  in  my 
hands  I  pulled  for  the  fence  as  best  I  could.  I  came  very 
near  getting  in  over  my  boot  tops.  What  a  plight  I  was 
in ;  the  mud  plastered  all  over  my  boots  and  some  on  my 
best  pants,  and  those  were  not  very  good  either. 

By  the  time  I  had  gone  seven  or  eight  miles  in  such 
weather  and  with  such  roads  as  I  had  then,  I  was  in  a 
sorry  plight.  About  the  first  thing  was  asking  the  privi- 
lege of  taking  off  boots  and  stockings  and  cleaning  up 
when  I  stopped  for  good,  if  indeed  I  did  not  have  to  bor- 
row a  suit  of  clothes  for  a  day.  Many  a  time  I  have 
crawled  into  some  oneelse's  boots  and  pants  while  I  dried 
and  cleaned  my  own. 

Sometimes  I  have  been  out  in  the  night  with  no  place 


74 

to  go  for  the  night  but  my  boarding  place,  perhaps  five 
miles  away.  I  have  been  to  prayer-meeting  and  staid  un- 
til late  in  the  evening,  and  no  one  invite  me  home  for  the 
night,  as  they  each  thought  1  was  going  with  the  other, 
I  suppose,  and  so  I  have  walked  five  miles  in  the  dark, 
sometimes  so  dark  I  had  to  feel  my  way  along  the  road. 
Of  course  during  such  journeys  I  was  not  able  to  pick  out 
my  way,  but  plough  through.  Mv  big  feet  have  many 
times  come  down  in  the  middle  of  some  deep  mud  hole  in 
the  middle  of  the  road  making  the  water  fly  all  over  me. 
I  used  to  be  very  thankful  that  no  one  could  see  me  when 
I  steamed  into  port  in  the  evening. 

Sometimes  I  have  been  out  in  the  night  when  a  heavy 
shower  would  come  up  and  I  would  get  soaked  clean  to 
the  hide,  if  even  the  hide  did  not  get  soaked.  That  was  a 
year  in  which  I  could  not  dress  very  well  for  two  reasons. 
First,  I  had  not  the  money  to  buy  anything,  better  with, 
and  secondly,  if  I  had,  it  would  have  been  folly  to  put  any- 
thing on  worth  much  to  be  caught  out  in,  as  I  was  so 
many  times  that  year. 

My  salary  was  very  limited  that  year,  so  that  I  was 
not  able  to  buy  a  horse,  not  even  a  saw  horse.  I  used  to 
fill  my  appointmsnts  regularly,  however,  and  generally 
on  time.  What  little  money  I  did  get  had  to  go  for  boots 
and  rubbers  and  for  books  and  papers  and  for  letter 
paper  etc.  I  believe  I  was  poorer  when  the  year  was  up 
than  when  I  began  my  work,  not  only  in  pocketbook  but 
in  flesh.  I  walked-off  all  the  flesh,  and  was  thin,  and 
gaunt,  and  my  clothes  were  as  rib-bare  as  I  was. 
But  I  was  happy  and  I  believe  I  could  say  truthfully 


75 

"blessed  be  nothing."  I  had  nothing  to  worry  over,  only 
lest  my  pants  should  give  out  on  the  knees  or  elsewhere 
to  my  discomfort. 

I  was  poor  when  I  went  on  to  the  circuit,  and  poor 
when  I  went  away  from  it.  I  had  very  little  money  that 
first  year.  The  people  were  poor  and  the  families  were 
large  and  the  preacher  had  to  take  what  he  could  get.  I 
find  on  one  page  of  my  book  for  that  year,  that  one 
farmer  is  credited  for  himself  and  family  with  the  folio  wing: 

3  Ibs.  butter $   .84 

Y2  bushel  potatoes 20 

6  Ibs.  meat : 50 

Y2  bushel  apples 25 


Total $1.79 

Another  one  (a  sister)  1  pair  of  socks $   .40 

The  local  preacher,  1  cord  of  wood  (slabs) 1.00 

One  old  lady  7  tbs.  meat 85 

That  is  about  the  way  it  run  through  the  year.  I  was 
single  and  boarding,  and  could  turn  most  of  the  truck 
over  to  my  landlady.  My  salary  for  the  year  did  not 
exceed  $250  including  everything.  I  was  not  able  there- 
fore to  secure  even  a  horse  to  ride.  So  I  was  the  circuit 
rider  on  foot.  I  used  to  preach  at  Yale  in  the  morning, 
and  then  walk  five  miles  to  the  Jones  school-house  for  the 
afternoon  and  to  Graves  seven  miles  for  evening.  Then 
the  next  Sabbath,  I  would  preach  at  Maple  school-house 
in  the  morning  and  then  take  up  one  of  the  other  appoint- 
ments in  the  afternoon  and  another  one  in  the  evening, 


76 

giving  me  plenty  of  exercise  during  the  day.  I  was  not 
troubled  any  with  the  dyspepsia  nor  the  gout.  I  wore 
out  plenty  of  sole-leather  though,  and  sweat  out  many 
paper  collars. 

During  a  part  of  the  winter  I  was  permitted  to  ride  a 
colt.  A  very  wicked  man  took  pity  on  the  "circuit  walker" 
and  said  if  I  would  come  down  to  his  house  he  would  let 
me  have  a  colt  to  ride.  So  I  went  down  and  rode  the  colt 
home  to  my  boarding  place.  I  borrowed  a  bridle  of  the 
old  man  who  owned  the  colt  and  a  saddle  of  a  neighbor, 
and  I  felt  as  big  as  a  King  on  a  throne,  when  I  left  town 
on  the  back  of  a  colt.  I  made  good  use  of  the  colt  while  I 
kept  it.  For  about  three  months  anyway  I  was  a 
real  "circuit  rider."  I  did  more  walking  that  first  year 
of  my  ministry  than  I  have  the  thirteen  following  years. 
I  did  not  mind  the  walking  any,  for  I  was  walking  for  the 
Lord,  and  I  was  well  paid  for  all  of  my  labor.  I  waded 
mud,  walked  on  logs  and  fence  rails  and  built  pontoon 
bridges  across  turbulent,  swelling  torrents  (or  some  other 
kind  of  a  bridge)  that  I  might  carry  the  gospel  into  the 
"regions  beyond  me."  I  was  a  veritable  gospel-peddler 
and  carried  the  gospel  into  every  house.  I  boarded  around 
among  the  people;  I  had  to.  The  people  thought  I  must. 
The  extent  of  my  circuit  compelled  me  to  live  with  the 
people  much,  and  my  salary  was  so  meager  that  I  could 
not  have  staid  there  unless  I  did. 

I  was  thoroughly  acquainted  with  my  people.  I  knew 
their  home  life.  Quite  a  number  of  times  i  helped  my 
people  establish  the  family  altar  in  their  homes.  Afoot, 
or  on  horseback,  I  meant  to  do  my  duty  with  the  help  of 


77 

the  Lord.  I  believe  I  did  do  my  duty,  too.  God  lifted  up 
my  head  above  mine  enemies  round  about  me,  and  I  was 
full  of  joy,  and  was  enabled  to  preach  with  power. 

Many  times  I  have  preached  with  wet  feet  and  soiled 
clothing  and  wrinkled  collar,  with  my  clothing  wet  with 
sweat  from  my  journey.  I  always  forgot  my  ills  (if  such 
they  could  be  called)  when  I  began  to  preach,  and  the 
Lord  used  to  bless  my  words.  Sometimes' every  one  in  the 
house  would  be  in  tears — saint  and  sinner.  Even  now  I 
look  back  upon  that  year  as  a  green  spot  in  my  ministeri- 
al life  that  will  never  fade  away. 

If  tramping  would  give  me  the  same  power  and  the 
same  pay  and  the  same  sweet  experience,  together  with 
its  clouds  and  sunshine,  I  would  be  willing  to  pull  off  my 
shoes  and  pull  on  my  kipp  boots  and  take  the  road. 
Every  year  has  been  a  good  year,  however.  But  I  was  a 
babe  in  the  ministry  then,  and  to  a  man  no  time  is  so 
sweet  as  his  childhood  days,  with  its  clouds  and  sunshine 
and  songs  and  tears. 

I  have  been  singing  doxologies  ever  since  that  first 
year  at  the  remembrance  of  God's  goodness  to  me,  and 
the  blessings  and  victories  of  my  initiation  into  this  the 
noblest  work  in  which  man  can  engage. 


SUMMARY. 

CHAPTER  XII. 

At  the  end  of  the  }^ear  my  charge  was  in  a  warm  and 
flourishing  condition.  At  Yale  the  work  had  become 
quite  satisfactory.  I  had  taken  on  probation  during  the 
year  39  persons.  Many  of  them  had  come  into  the  church 
in  full  connection  before  the  year  was  up ;  and  the  most  of 
the  remainder  were  still  on  the  way.  The  Seventh  Day 
Baptists  were  not  doing  as  well  at  the  end  of  the  year  as 
they  expected.  Things  did  not  turn  out  as  they  expected 
they  would  when  they  set  up  business  against  the  Method- 
ist Episcopal  church.  They  did  not  start  right.  If  they 
had  any  noisy  work  to  do  they  always  seemed  to  do  it  on 
the  Sabbath  day,  and  get  as  near  the  church  to  do  it,  or 
some  conspicuous  place,  where  it  would  annoy  the  first- 
day  people.  For  instance,  one  fine  Sabbath  day  when  the 
people  were  coming  to  church  the  leading  man  in  the 
Baptist  church  got  out  in  the  road  to  clean  his  stovepipe 


79 

so  that  people  could  see  and  hear  the  noise  as  they  were 
going  to  church. 

Like  the  old  woman  and  the  preacher  whom  she 
thought  needed  snuffing.  The  preacher  arose  in  a  sleepy 
way  and  read  in  a  drawling  manner  his  text,  which  was 
this:  "I  am  the  light  of  the  world."  Then  he  repeated 
the  text,  after  looking  about  upon  the  audience.  When  he 
had  finished  the  text  for  the  second  time,  "  I  am  the  light 
of  the  world,"  an  old  lady  piped  out  in  a  squeaky  voice, 
"If  you  are,  you  need  snuffing."  So  if  that  man  with  his 
stovepipe  was  oneof  God's  lights  heneeded  snuff  ing  badly. 

The  Free  Methodists  did  a  good  deal  of  shouting  and 
exercising,  but  that  only  kept  them  from  being  dyspeptic, 
while  it  did  not  result  in  any  marked  degree  in  the  growth 
of  that  church  or  the  overthrow  of  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal church,  which  ever  has  been,  and  probably  always 
will  be,  an  eye-sore  to  the  bulk  of  that  society.  They 
verily  thought  we  were  all  hypocrits.  Perhaps  we  were, 
but  we  were  having  a  glorious  time  of  it,  and  if  that  kind 
of  feeling  comes  from  hypocracy,  like  the  dutchman,  who, 
addmitted  that  money  was  the  root  of  all  evil,  (which  of 
course  it  is  not)  said,  "but  give  me  some  more  of  the 
root,"  so  I  say  give  us  some  more  of  that  kind  of 
hypocracy. 

The  Advents,  both  the  First  Day  and  the  Seventh  Day, 
were  going  about  saying,  that  they  were  looking  for 
Christ  to  come  any  day.  One  old  man  with  long  hair  and 
a  longer  beard  used  to  go  around  the  neighborhood  strok- 
ing his  beard  and  declaring  in  funeral  tones  that  he 
thought  Christ  would  come  any  day  now,  for  the  end  was 


80 

near.    Some  of  them  even  went  so  far  as  to  pick  out  the 
farm  they  were  going  to  live  on  after  Christ  had  killed  all 
of  the  wicked  and  purified  the  earth  by  fire.    One  farm 
they  had  an  eye  on  was  the  property  of  a  good  old  saint, 
but  it  was  no  matter  to  them,  they  were  going  to  people 
the  earth.    I  had  a  talk  with  one  Advent,  and  he  claimed 
that  the  spirit  went  into  the  grave  with  the  body  and 
staid  there  until  the  resurrection  morn.  I  quoted  scripture 
to  him  and  he  would  claim  that  it  was  all  wrong,  and, 
when  I  see  that  he  was  not  capable  of  furnishing  any 
scripture  in  proof  of  his  position  and  yet  denied  all  that 
I  offered,  I  asked  him  if  he  really  believed  that  the  spirit 
went  into  the  grave?    He  said  he  did.    Then  I  said,  I  hope 
the  Lord  will  let  you  lay  in  the  grave  with  the  dust  and 
old  dry  bones,  if  you  really  believe  it,  I  am  not  going  there 
anyway.    The  old  fellow  got  mad  at  me,  and  would  not 
speak  to  me  nor  go  to  my  meetings  after  that.    He  did 
not  seem  to  like  his  own  medicine  very  well.    The  whole 
time  of  those  would-be  saints  is  taken  up  with  some  point 
that  will  not  make  one  hair  whiter  nor  blacker.    To  me, 
to  help  someone  get  ready  to  meet  the  Lord  when  he 
comes  is  far  above  trying  to  convince  someone  that  he  is 
coming  tomorrow  or  next  day.    It  is  none  of  our  business 
when  he  comes,  if  it  was,  the  Lord  would  have  told  us  all 
about  it,  but  our  business  is  to  be  always  ready,  for  we 
know  not  when  he  will  come.     Somethings  are  import- 
ant.   The  preaching  of  faith,  repentance,  regeneration, 
the  work  of  the  spirit,  the  love  of  God  and  our  duties  to 
God  and  one  anothej  are  worth  more  to  the  ounce  than 
all  the   disputed    and    distinguishing   points    of  all  the 


81 

churches  put  together  are  worth  by  the  shipload  dumped 
on  the  docks.  How  much  corn  will  a  man  husk  in  a  day 
if  he  stops  to  discuss  the  formation  of  a  husk  ?  The  husks 
are  necessary,  but  only  because  of  the  corn  on  the  ear. 
Some  people  are  always  stripping  husks  and  getting  no 
corn.  Let  us  have  the  corn ! 

Away  with  those  old  bones — old  fossils  of  dead  faith 
and  rotten  reason.  What  this  hungry,  crying  world 
wants  is  bones  with  meat  on  them.  You  never  saw  a 
man  that  was  gnawing  an  old  weather-worn  bone  that 
was  very  fat.  When  you  meet  one  of  these  old  bone-eaters, 
you  only  find  a  shadow  of  a  man.  He  may  try  to  per- 
suade you  to  eat,  and  tell  you  how  delicious  it  is,  but  if 
you  do  accept  his  bone  you  will  be  nothing  more  spiritual- 
ly than  skin  and  bones. 

Some  animals  can  seem  to  thrive  in  a  grave-yard.  Go 
into  the  grave-yard  of  the  past  and  you  can  find  the 
fossils  of  old  dead  isms,  that  have  been  left  there  after  the 
birds  have  picked  off  what  little  meat  there  was  on  them. 

Christianity  comes  to  the  soul  full  of  juice,  fresh  and 
palatable.  The  soul  that  feeds  upon  the  gospel  will  be  fat. 
Health,  freshness,  beauty  and  strength  become  those  who 
are  well-fed.  God's  people  are  well-fed.  "They  shall  be 
fat  and  flourishing." 

I  thank  God  that  I  never  tried  to  feed  my  people  on 
dry  bones  bleached  in  the  sun  of  centuries.  We  went  in 
for  the  marrow  of  the  gospel.  If  we  were  cut  short  some- 
times in  this  world's  goods  we  never  were  in  want  for  the 
delicacies  of  that  other  world. 

In  my  experiences  boarding  around,  I  often  came  to 


82 

hard  fare.  Sometimes  I  have  dined  on  salt  and  potatoes, 
sometimes  on  poor  bread  with  no  butter ;  once  I  dined  on 
stewed  wookchuck,  often  on  chickens  and  sometimes  I 
did  not  get  a  chance  to  dine  on  anything.  It  was  about 
the  same  with  beds.  Sometimes  I  would  find  good  beds, 
other  times  I  have  slept  on  a  straw  tick  that  was  so  thin 
that  the  slats  that  held  up  the  tick  amounted  to  a  great 
deal  more  by  way  of  close  fitting,  than  the  straw  in  the 
tick.  Sometimes  I  have  examined  the  beds  in  the  morn- 
ing to  see  if  they  had  put  any  stuffing  in  the  ticks  or  not. 
I  have  gotten  up  in  cold  weather  and  put  my  clothes  on 
and  gone  back  to  bed  to  keep  warm,  and,  like  Paul  and 
his  company  when  on  the  stormy  sea,  wished  for  the  day- 
break. 

But  those  things  did  not  hinder  my  work  in  the  least, 
I  could  preach  as  well  on  stewed  woodchuck  as  on  cake 
and  pie,  and  feel  as  strong  for  the  battle  after  being 
stretched  upon  slats  or  bedcords  for  the  rest  and  sleep  of 
the  night,  as  if  on  goose  feathers. 

With  all  of  the  unpleasant  things  connected  with  the 
work,  I  must  say  that  my  first  year  was  a  happy,  tri- 
umphant year  in  my  ministry  and  one  never  to  be  forgot- 
ten. I  would  not  hesitate  for  one  moment  to  go  over  the 
same  road  again  with  the  same  blessed  scenes,  associa- 
tions and  experiences,  with  few  exceptions,  and  one  of 
those  the  bedbugs.  What  I  mean  is  that  the  exceptions 
are  not  taken  in  regard  to  any  of  the  blessed  things,  but 
in  respect  simply  to  some  of  the  associations,  mentioned 
above. 

In  conclusion,  let  me  say,  that  the  life  of  a  preacher  is 


83 

not  a  life  all  sunshine  nor  all  shadows,  but  it  is  such  a 
Divine  combination  of  the  two  that  one  at  once  loses 
sight  of  the  one  in  the  brightness  of  the  other.  And,  be- 
lieving that  all  things  will  work  together  for  good  to 
them  that  love  God,  the  preacher  clings  to  the  ship  and 
lets  God  take  the  helm,  and  thus  out-rides  the  storm.  In 
that  sense  all  should  be  preachers  and  cling  to  the  ropes. 
We  may  not  be  able  to  save  a  cause,  but  this  mighty, 
glorious  cause  will  save  all  who  cling  to  it. 

THE    END. 


A  few  Original  Poems, 


87 


THE  OLD  FLINT-LOCK  MUSKET. 

(Parody  on  "  The  Old  Oaken  Bucket") 

How  painful  the  memories  linked  with  my  childhood, 

While  fond  recollections  there  seems  but  a  few; 
The  tree  with  green  apples,  that  tasted  so  bitter 

And  gave  me  the  cramps  and  the  stomachache,  too ; 
The  wide-spreading  pond  where  I  spoiled  my  new  breeches, 

And  stuck  myself  fast  in  the  deep,  quaking  mire ; 
The  hand  of  my  father  that  used  to  fit  tightly, 

And  warmed  my  thin  trousers  as  if  in  the  fire, 
And  then  that  old  musket,  the  rusty  old  musket, 

My  grandfather's  musket  that  stood  in  the  barn. 

That  old  rusty  musket  1  hail  with  no  pleasure ; 

For  one  time  at  noon,  when  returned  from  the  store, 
I  found  it  the  source  of  a  thousand  bad  speeches 

And  groauiugs  and  bruises  a  thousand  times  more ; 
How  ardent  I  seized  it,  my  grandfather's  musket, 

And  quick  to  my  shoulder  I  brought  the  old  stock, 
And  soon  as  I  pulled  at  the  rusty  old  trigger 

The  thunder  and  lightning  burst  forth  all  at  once; 
My  heels  took  the  air  and  I  cut  a  queer  figure, 

While  stars  danced  about  me  a  million  or  more. 

How  bitter  my  thoughts,  and  how  wild  the  commotion, 

When  I  think  of  the  musket  that  stands  in  the  barn ; 
Not  a  mine  of  rich  treasures  could  tempt  me  to  touch  it, 

Though  foes  should  assail  me  or  threaten  me  harm ; 
My  revenge  would  be  sweeter  if  my  foes  took  the  musket, 

For  the  danger  is  greater  behind  than  before. 
When  ever  I  think  of  my  father's  plantation 

That  rusty  old  musket  comes  up  in  my  mind, 
The  war  with  old  England  they  called  "Revolution;" 

And  since  I  revolved  so  I  know  what  it  means. 


88 
HIS  MERCY  ENDURETH  FOREVER. 

I  will  sing  to  the  Lord  a  iiew  song, 

Giviiig  thanks  for  his  goodness  to  me; 
Tnto  Him,  who  is  mighty  and  strong, 
Unto  Him  all  the  glory  shall  be. 
For  His  mercy  enduretb, 
Yes,  endureth  forever. 

He  unlocked  the  embrace  of  the  wave, 

That  his  people  iu  safety  might  pass ; 
While  their  enemies  found  but  a  grave, 

As  the  waves  sought  each  other's  embrace. 
For  His  mercy  endureth, 
Yes,  endureth  forever. 

In  the  desert  His  people  He  led, 

And  made  waters  gush  forth  from  the  rock 
And  with  manna  His  people  were  fed : 
For  He  leadeth  and  feedeth  His  flock. 
For  His  mercy  eudureth, 
Yes,  endureth  forever. 


ALL  ALONE. 

In  the  darkness  all  alone, 
While  the  night  winds  sadly  moan; 
With  no  cheering  gleam  of  light, — 
Wand'ring,  wand'riug  in  the  night. 

Weary,  weary,  all  alone, — 
Threat'utug  clouds  are  sweeping  on ; 
But  no  shelter  from  the  storm; 
With  no  friend,  alone  to  roam. 

Sinner,  list !    There  is  a  call, 
From  the  distance,— O,  so  small,— 
Lo !  A  star, — O,  turn  and  see, — 
Shining  now  for  thee,  for  thee. 

Jesus  calls, — 0,  sinner  come, 
He's  prepared  for  thee  a  home; 
Flee  from  danger,  flee  from  harm, 
Come  to  Christ's  dear,  loving  arms. 


89 
THE  KICKER  OF  HONEYMOON  CIRCUIT. 

There  was  a  hard  place  called  Honeymoon  Circuit, 
And  they  wanted  a  new  man  to  work  it; 
And  so  the  wise  Bishop  sent  on  a  new  preacher, 
To  be  their  next  pastor  and  teacher. 

But  the  new  one  was  too  old  to  accept  him,— 
And  the  preacher  was  single  that  left  them  ; 
And  thus  the  P.  E.  did  arrange  it, 
So  he  could  quite  easily  change  it. 

The  change  it  was  made;  the  preacher  sent  on, — 
The  one  they  had  seemed  to  be  bent  on ; 
They  claimed  to  be  very  contented, 
And  a  parsonage  quickly  was  rented. 

The  bounds  of  the  charge  were  far-reaching, 
And  five  were  the  place  for  preaching; 
The  work  was  quite  vast  in  proportions, 
And  sometimes  beset  with  strange  notions. 

And  one  of  these  points  was  named  Orlo, 
Where  things  must  be  always  thus  or  so. 
Their  piety  run  in  an  unknown  direction, 
Or  else  they  were  lacking  the  very  best  section. 

The  people  of  Orlo  were  thinking  of  yielding, 
For  the  want  of  a  proper  church  building; 
And  the  work  and  the  cause  had  been  lagging, 
And  the  faith  of  the  saints  seemed  flagging. 

The Classleader,  "spokesman,"  "chieftain"  and  so-forth, 
Was  David  Cantdoit,  whose  "bossly ''  go  forth. 
Was  the  word  of  command  and  the  end  of  all  lawing, 
And  it  had  to  go  forth  without  "  hemming  and  hawing." 

This  David  Cantdoit  had  "fixed  up"  the  members, 
Until  they  thought  he  was  the  "greatest  of  timbers." 
They  worshiped  the  man,  they  worshiped  his  money, 
'Til  the  worship  of  God  wasn't  worth  quite  a  penny. 

They  told  the  new  preacher :    "  Perhaps  you  don't  know  it, 
But  we  never  could  live  without  brother  Cantioit." 
One  would  think  from  the  talk  of  this  silly,  blind  people, 
That  "brother  Cantdoit"  was  the  god  on  the  steeple. 


90 

The  preacher,  he  worshiped  the  Lord  God,  Almighty, 
The  people,  "David  Cantdoit,"  the  conceity : 
And  so  it's  no  wonder  the  people  were  lagging, 
And  the  faith  of  the  saints  was  flagging. 

But  "brother  Cantdoit"  said  the  trouble  with  Orlo, 
Was  the  want  of  a  church  either  thus  or  so ; 
"  We  want  a  new  church ;  it  is  now  or  never," 
The  others  said ;    "  Yes,  it  is  now,  if  ever. 

The  preacher  never  bowed  down  to  "brother  Cantdoit," 
And  this  worldly-wise  saint  seemed  to  know  it; 
And  being  more  mulish  than  saintly  by  nature, 
He  always  objected  to  every  new  measure. 

The  preacher,  in  love  for  the  cause  and  the  people, 
Proposed  a  new  church,  with  belfry  and  steeple ; 
When  up  jumps  the  "Leader"  and  says:    "We  can't  do  it," 
Like  all  other  skeptics  he  adds:    "  And  I  know  it." 

This  man,  who  for  reasons  just  told,  talkedt)f  yielding, 
Was  the  first  to  oppose  the  much-needed  building. 
He  "hemmed"  and  he  "hawed"  and  without  any  reason, 
He  said :    '  'You  Can't  do  it,"  and  "  This  aint  the  season." 

The  work  went  "ahead"  by  "lifting"  and  "tugging;" 
But  this  awful  good  man  made  it  very  hard  lugging; 
He  laid  down  and  rode  on  top  of  the  burden, 
And  growled  that  so  long  was  the  time  to  the  Jordan, 

If  the  work  should  succeed,  he  wanted  the  credit, 
And  if  it  should  fail,  the  preacher  would  get  it; 
But,  in  truth,  if  it  failed  he  deserved  all  the  blaming, 
And  with  its  success  he  wasn't  worth  naming. 

This  "unsainlly"  saint  kicked  as  a  source  of  his  giving, 
For  kicking  was  part  of  his  every-day  living; 
He  aimed  at  the  preacher  with  hatefulness  ever, 
As  though  he  was  certain  it  was  •'  note  or  never." 

When  the  preacher  had  finished  his  work,  they  dinmissed  him, 
And  not  even  a  blessing  for  his  work  they  wished  him. 
While  many  the  hands  that  helped  to  receive  him, 
He  must  ''  go  it  alone,"  when  the  time  comes  to  leave  them. 


91 

AH  of  yore,  there  was  a  cry  from  Honeymoon  Circuit ; 
For  they  wanted  a  new  man  to  work  it. 
And  God  pity  the  man  that  meets  with  such  foes, — 
They  are  glad  when  ho  comes,  and  pleased  when  he  goe  s. 

But  David  Cantdoit  will  find  he  can't  do  it, 
And  the  angels  in  heaven  all  know  it; 
For  kicking  doth  make  him  a  dangerous  rival, 
And,  if  he  keeps  kicking,  he'll  go  to  the  Devil. 


TRUSTING  IN  THE  LORD. 

I  have  found  a  safe  retreat ; 
I  can  all  my  foes  defeat, 

Trusting  in  the  Lord. 
Joshua,  the  victory  man, 
David's  mighty  deeds  were  done, 

Trusting  in  the  Lord. 

Jesus  spake  the  Holy  word, 
Wond'rous  news  the  peple  heard, 

Trusting  in  the  Lord. 
Blind  men  had  their  sight  restored, 
Health  and  strength  the  sick  implored, 

Trusting  in  the  Lord. 

Cripples  took  their  beds  and  walked 
'Mid  the  throngs  where  Jesus  talked, 

Trusting  in  the  Lord. 
Vile  men  had  their  sins  forgiven, 
And  they  started  out  for  heaven, 

Trusting  in  the  Lord. 

Weeping  Mary  Jesus  sought  :— 

From  the  tomb  good  news  she  brought, 

Trusting  in  the  Lord. 
Christ's  apostles  preached  with  power, 
Had  a  "pentecostal  shower." 

Trusting  in  the  Lord. 


92 
JUST  CALL  AND  SEE  FOR  YOURSELVES. 

Written  in  1876. 

(This  poem  was  suggested  by  an  advertisement  in  a  newspaper, 
offering  great  bargains,  etc  ,  and  closed  by  saying  "  Just  Call  and  see 
For  Yourselves.]" 

The  storehouse  of  God  is  full  and  free,— 
Just  call  and  see  for  yourselves; 

The  door  stands  ajar  for  you  and  me,— 
Just  call  and  see  for  yourselves. 

The  Bible  describes  its  stock  of  gold, 

Its  value  to  you  can  never  be  told,— 
Just  call  and  see  for  yourselves. 

The  bargains  are  great,  and  it  will  pay,— 
Just  call  and  see  for  yourselves; 

You  never  should  doubt  what  thousands  say, — 
Just  call  and  see  for  yourselves. 

No  money  is  needed  when  you  go, 

The  firm  is  so  rich,  they  give,  you  know,— 
Just  call  and  see  for  yourselves 

There  is  a  full  line  of  gospel  fare, — 
Just  call  and  see  for  yourselves ; 

And  there  is  a  stock  of  blessings  rare,— 
Just  call  and  see  for  yourselves. 

There  is  but  one  price  on  everything, 

And  that  has  been  paid  by  Christ,  the  King, — 
Just  call  and  see  for  yourselves. 


A  SING'LAR  CUSTOM. 

(A  parody  on  the  "  New  Church  Doctrine. ") 
There  is  a  sing'lar  custom,  Sue, 

Among  our  folks  to-day ; 
'Tis  not  in  whole  a  thing  so  new, 

So  all  the  preachers  say ; — 
That  literal,  everlastin'  howl, 

As  if  about  to  die, 
Some  people  always  have  to  growl 

At  everything  we  try. 
I  doubt  somewhat  about  that  clime, 

They  always  talk  about, 
A  bein'  quite  "so  mild"  sometime, 

As  they  may  yet  find  out. 


93 

I've  watched  my  duty,  straight  an'  true, 

An'  tried  to  do  it  well ; 
I  always  gave  with  Christ  in  view, 

An'  always  made  it  tell. 
But  some  will  sing— an'  give  just  naught — 

"  A  foll'wer  of  the  Lamb;" 
An'  all  the  battle  they  have  fought, 

Is  only  just  a  whim. 
Great  are  the  dangers  1  have  braved, 

The  sacrifice  it  cost  ;— 
An'  now  if  these  ere  folks  are  saved, 

My  sacrifice  is  lost. 

Just  think !    To  say  they  •'  mean  to  do, 

An'  help  the  cause  along, 
'  His  track  I  see,  an'  I'll  pursue,' " 

Is  brother  Tubbs's  eong. 
An'  talks  about  the  narrow  way, 

As  if  he  walked  beside  the  King ; 
Au'  looks  at  me  as  if  to  say, 

"Don't  you  wish  you  could  sing?" 
But  wheu  the  plate  is  passed  around, 

He  lays  it  on  so  still, — 
As  if  a  cent  would  give  a  sound 

His  very  soul  to  ctill 

An'  there  is  Deacon  James  and  wife, 

They  have  no  children  left, 
An'  they  should  carry  in  this  life 

Of  burdens  quite  a  heft. 
But  when  you  ask  them  "to  divide," 

An'  help  the  preacher  on, 
With  thousands  saved,  right  by  their  side, 

The  preacher  gets  a  "one." 
They  always  say,  "how  much  it  costs 

To  keep  the  meetin'  up ;" 
But  the  church  would  be  in  ruin  lost, 

Were  they  the  only  prop. 

Old  Captain  Bates  has  never  done. 

An'  has  his  pockets  crammed ; 
I  sometimes  think  he'll  be  the  one, 

If  any  one  is  damned. 


94 

Au'  Peter  Flag  did  muriner  so 

An'  said,  "The  times  were  hard," 
But  he  could  go  to  Barnum's  show, 

An'  buy  a  "family  card." 
There  comes  a  thought  I  can't  control, 

That  Satan  may  get  some ;  — 
He  takes  the  purse  to  lead  the  soul 

To  his  infernal  home. 

An'  there  was  Smith  lay  sick  and  weak, 

For  many  an*  many  a  day, 
And  all  because  he  sought  to  seek 

An'  lay  more  dimes  away. 
He  had  enough  to  last  him  through, 

Nor  do  another  thing ; 
An'  now  because — from  follow  too — 

He  had  to  "clip  his  wing." 
The  cause  of  Christ  must  suffer  loss; 

The  preacher  suffer  lack,— 
The  man  was  sick,  and  so  his  cross 

Will  be  to  "brace  his  back." 

But  tears  can  never  do  my  part, 

Nor  feed  a  hungry  soul ; 
When  love  is  in  my  inner  heart, 

My  purse  is  in  control . 
I  hold  mine  right  side  up  with  care, 

To  shield  mine  eyes  from  sin, 
An'  coax  the  Lord  with  daily  pray'r, 

To  use  the  dimes  withia. 
Bat  if  these  grumblers  won't  draw  nigh, 

An'  take  salvation's  plan, 
I'll  have  to  stand  an,  see  'em  try 

To  dodge  hell,  if  they  can. 


95 

"  BLESS  ME  !      THIS  IS  PLEASANT." 

A  pyem  composed  at  the   age  of  17  years. 

[The  subject  called  "Wat"  was  a  hotel  keeper  of  a  very  bad 
sort,  whose  given  nam?  was  Washington,  and  was  always  called 
"  Wat ''  and  "Watty."  He  kept  a  very  bal  house  and  was  strongly 
opposed  by  temperance  people.  He  was  greedy  for  gain.] 

As  "Wat"  sat  by  his  bar-room  fire, 

And  none  but  he  was  there, 

He  counted  o'er  the  dimes  he'd  made 

By  his  nefarious  trade. 

And  as  he  laid  them  on  the  shelf, 

Thus  said  he  to  himself: 

How  fast  I'm  making  money, 

In  this  land  of  beer  and  honey. 

Bless  me !    This  is  pleasant. 

I  know  some  people  don't  like  me, — 
With  temperance  folks  I  don't  agree; 
They  have  their  friends — /  have,  I  think, 
For  there  is  Doctor  Link 
And  Jessie  Bench  and  Billy  Dock, 
Come  each  as  steady  as  a  clock. 
O !  how  I'll  scoop  the  money 
And  make  the  boys  feel  funny ! 

Bless  me !    I  am  happy. 

Now,  there's  my  Farmers'  Jubilee  — 

Some  called  it  "  Watty's  spree,— 

Just  think !  because  we  had  some  fun 

They  go  howlin'  round  the  town. 

Well !  humph !    I  made  some  money.    Whew ! 

I  guess  I  did — a  bushel,  too. 

They  all  had  lots  of  money, 

And  seemed  to  feel  quite  fanny. 

Bless  me !    It  was  pleasant. 

Because  we  had  a  pole  to  climb 
Close  by,  to  pass  away  the  time, 
Then  some  of  those  cold-water  clams, 
They  scoffed  at  me  like  fighting  rams, 
And  said  I  meant  to  sell  out  dry. — 
The  truth  of  that  I  don't  deny — 
For  those  who  came  had  money, 
And  got  to  feeling  funny ; 

Bless  mel    It  was  pleasant. 


96 

Plague  take  those  stiff  cold-water  men, 
']  hey  call  nay  place  "The  Devil's  Den  ;" 
They  fight  against  my  honest  trade. 
As  though  I  had  no  license  paid. 
I'll  get  their  sons  here  on  the  sly, 
As  the  spider  did  the  silly  fly, 
And  when  I  get  their  money 
It  won't  seem  quite  so  funny. 

Blees  mel    If  I  don't. 

I  went  to  a  donation  once — 

A  big  consummate  dunce, 

To  give  the  Rev.,  a  Methodist, 

A  crisp  new  "V,"  just  to  assist ; 

And  now  he's  fighting  hard  'gainst  me, 

And  voted  temperance,  too,  I  see; 

He  'predated  my  money 

In  a  way  that  isn't  funny. 

Blees  me !    It  isn't  pleasant. 

Now  there's  that  painter  Buckman,  too, 
He's  stiffer  by  far  than  my  old  shce, 
I  wouldn't  have  had  him  paint  for  me, 
But  1  thought  of  course  the  man  could  see, 
That  he  could  drink  here  on  the  sly 
The  best  of  whisky  made  of  rye. 
Good  Templars  ain't  so  funny, 
For  I  don't  get  much  of  their  money. 
Curse  me !    What  a  crowd  ! 

Now  some  have  said  that  I  am,  (hie,) 
In  town  "sole  agent  for  Old  Nick." 
Has  Satan  got  on  me  a  claim? 
There  is  no  justice,  truth  nor  shame 
In  hurting  thus  my  honest  trade. 
Away,  then,  to  the  midnight  shade 
With  things  that  ain't  so  funny, 
I  am  after  the  drinker's  mon  y. 

Curse  me!    If  I  don't  get  it. 

And  so  old  "Wat"  went  off  to  bed, 
To  wake  at  morn  to  ply  his  trade. 
Old  Elam  came  for  his  morning  drink 
And  Dock  and  Bench  and  Doctor  Link. 


97 

And  so  the  days,  the  months  went  by, 
And  soon  old  "  Wat"  laid  down  to  die, 
If  'twas  pleasant  making  money, 
To  die  was  not  so  funny, — 

Not  quite  so  pleasant. 


EVIL  IMAGINATION. 

A  friend  drops  in  so  light, 

And  says  that  neighbor  B 

Intends  to  rob  your  house  to-night, 
He  often  looks  that  way. 

Now,  on  the  strength  of  that 

Be  cat,  and  watch  the  rat, 

Or  he  may  gnaw  a  fearful  hole, 

And  steal  away  your  soul. 


